The thin ice of cephalopod politics
by Hydraliskenmaster
Summary: 12000 years in a far of future a group of Octarians crack open a ancient precursors vault in hopes of finding new power sources. They are in for a surprise.
1. Chapter 1

Around 12.000 Year in a far of future a large Octarian archeology troup ripped open a the last metal door that blocked their way into the largest Pre-flood-species structure they have found to this day.

Hina was excited, she was one of the few Octarian that were allowed to investigate those grand structures that survived for so many millenia.

The most common theory about the precursors, that was how most people called them, were that they weren't very smart. The skeletons they found were simply way too small to support proper brain masses. But Hina, head scientist of the royal archaeological investigators, or the Rai for short, believed the opposite, she had seen so many so grand and marvelous creations that to her the simple idea of the creators not to being masters of science was insanity, she would have loved to study the structures forever in the hopes of one day proving her theory that they even had way to create electric energy.

The very idea was preposterous to most, the Zapfish where the holy creator of energy and where keeping millions alive, the only problem was that the victories they had against the squids was short lived, the Zapfish gone with it, and they were back to collecting scraps to stay alive.

Luckily enough there were a lot of scraps to pick from, the structures that they uncovered where so vast and resourceful that even the insane amount of work that it took to crack open the even more insanely thick materials that they used to build their structures was still worth it.

The things they could salvage from them sometimes could feed the citizens energy needs for years to come.

Sadly as much as Hina to explore the insides forever her job was to salvage as much useful things from them as possible, no matter the cost and as fast as possible.

Even if it meant destroying things in the process.

It hurt her now more than ever as she entered and probably for the first time in eons illuminated the structure.

Or that's what she thought, but when she entered she never expected to see so many flashing red lights. They were everywhere. The precursors liked to build practical she learned, so large open spaces with no usefulness were nearly nonexistent. This one was one of the largest she had seen so far. But no matter where she looked red lights were flashing everywhere.

It was completely out of any kind of synchronization and every light was connected to one square on the wall that was clearly sticking out of the wall. She had never seen anything like it, and it was mesmerizing to watch.

"What is so interesting that you have to block the entrance for it Doctor Hina?" Came a angered voice behind her that interrupted her magic moment. With a scroll on her face she turned around. And as expected there was only Octarian who had the guts to call out a full Octoling like herself, and that was the security supervisor Mario, Hina understood this guys job and all that but he really could be a little nicer about it.

He stepped past her unconcerned about the glares he was given from Hina and looked around."Ok, I want all the equipment in that corner over there. Those things, whatever they are all look the same so whatever they are we can probably find out by just looking at one of them, no need to waste energy on lighting up everything." She really hated when he made sense.

After a few hours all was set and done and investigations were running, the materials were mostly the same and the boxes(that was what she was calling them for now), as expected, where all the same as far as she could tell, one box was about as high as her, as wide as she could stretch her arms and they were firmly lodged into the wall, eight of them stacked ontop of eachother with each one having a round grip on it. They had yet to go from the corner next to the door to count how many in length they were.

Also it was cold, they had to get fully clothed because the air in this room was near freezing and already was stale for how knows how long. That it was still breathable was something Hina to found very fascinating.

Speaking of witch this is exactly what she was about to do right now. As she walked off into the dark(red blinking) void that was in front of her her flashlight still failing to reach to the end of the corridor.

But while she marked them down by numbering the bottom row with a piece of tape she found something very strange. One of the boxes wasn't blinking. They theorized that because they blink in such red light they have some sort of power storage in them, this made this place much more valuable already. Maybe this one had run out? At closer inspection she noticed that a part of the box was sticking out, could this be the power source and that it was not properly placed inside? Archeologi normally told her to not touch stuff until properly documented so she quickly snapped pictures and and gave a short entry in her journal.

After she had done that she considered pulling it out for closer inspection and despite how heavy it had to be it was still movable, she could hear weals moving on what sounded like rails beneath it as she moved the grip. She started to move further and further but without a warning it stopped. She reached some sort of blockade that prevented pulling it out fully. With a sigh she started pulling it back and planning to put it back into its starting position.

"What are you doing?!" Came the surprising outcry from her side and a bright light was shining in her eyes.

Hina stopped pushing to shield her eyes."Will you stop shining into my eyes you oversized Pickel!" she screamed back showing the light. She already knew exactly who it was that was screaming at her.

"I will shine my light wherever I want. Now tell me what you are doing pushing whatever that is into the boxes, do you want it to lock and send us straight back to square one?!" While the argument broke out both of them failed to notice that the box indeed had continued moving back and with a soft click locked into place. mechanisms so old that not even the land masses remember them stirred up for the first time in eons, displays started to light up analysis started and systems checked. All this was clearly visible on the outside and even a soft humming was heard.

Sadly the two Octarians were blind to all of this as they continued their argument.

"... and I keep telling you to listen to my orders you insolent child! I am responsible for all of your safety and you just walk off and do move mechanisms that could very well blow this whole place up!" The grumpy military Octarina screamed up at her, despite her being a Octoling, something that was feared by most other Octarinas, the damn guy who only had six limbs left criticised her like she was a child who just recently hatched and would set the world on fire with irresponsible actions.

"I am not a child you crazy old…!" she interrupted herself she saw his look being hefted to the one odd box and he carefully started stepping away from it. She to started looking at it, noticing the humming that was getting louder by the second, and the strange symbols rushing around on the many displays that now were visible on the box, she to now was stepping away carefully.

Meanwhile inside the box tubes connected to vains started fluid circulations making perfectly preserved and enriched blood flow into a body that should have decomposed long ago if not for masterfull chemical, biological and electrical engineering. A heart muscle was forced to pump making stiff and old muscles move for the first time in ages. And rhythmical shocks were injected over the many wires that were connected to the body slowly restoring, temperature, functions and activity. the whole process took only a few minutes. but slowly the body of a man long declared dead to the world started to work again.

"I told you to wander off and now look what you did." Meanwhile the argument outside started again.

"What is that supposed to mean?! If you hadn't surprised me like that, nothing of this would be happening! And not everything will blow up and kill us pessimistic algae eater."

"What did you just call me you damn..." A loud boom of metal hitting metal was heard and this time both looked back at the box a bit more fearful.

The strange noises continued and the displays now showed something that looked like a progress bar, what it was showing the progress of Hina only could guess but the process was close to completion.

A few tense moments both stared until the bar was full and now the whole display was flashing in a bright green and making pinging noises.

Suddenly lights were switched on. Light's. Everywhere. it was so sudden that despite being not very bright they blinded everyone who was in the room.

Hina had to rub her eyes and it took a while until she could open them again, when she did the box that started all this was fully outside.

This… was absolutely amazing, it's the first time Octarian had discovered fully functional precursor technology, she had no idea what it did but right now it didn't matter. She had her camera out and was snapping pictures with excitement radiating out of her body.

"What in the Octo King's name is that thing." She heard a low grumble next to her and saw the superviser point his inker at the box. She doubted she could do any real damage with it and in that moment chose to ignore him and stepped closer, sadly she didn't see much as the box seemed to be the same material and there was nothing interesting visible on it other then she now saw that it was way larger than she expected it to be and the other boxes stayed unchanged. Hissing was heard and gases burst out from the box forcing her to step back again and she watched with fascination as the box opened with noises she never heard before being heard.

* * *

"So, will any of you fine gentleman explain to me what is going on?" I asked the two guys that were sitting in front of me.

Roughly two hours ago I literally had my door ripped open and 3 full black suit, agent looking guys whose moms fed them way to well, politely informed me that I had to come with them, or they would drag me along.

I like to think that I am a smart guy and as such chose to not complain.

Now one of them is driving while the two others were accompanying me in the back seats of the limo that we drove.

Also the guy in the front was actually driving. I mean come on it's the year 2025, who is still driving manually these days? If the cars still had gears I might understand but the cans they produce these days are all purely electronic.

"We can't give you any information yet." left big guys said."If it's any consolation you are not in trouble."

Well that is good, I think? "Thank you for at least telling me that." I answered with a sigh.

The drive continued and sadly the windows were completely black I also didn't have my phone with me so I was bored out of my skull.

"Anything you guys are allowed to talk about to pass the time?" I asked again.

They both looked at each other for a moment before left guy spoke up again."You watched the quarterfinals of the last hockey cup?" Now we are talking!

While I wasn't a very big sports enthusiast I have to admit that the conversation speed up the ride immensely.

"We are here." the driver spoke up, how he was driving with his windshield completely black I have no idea. Probably had something to do with the sunglasses he was wearing the whole time.

The door opened up and we stepped out of the car. Of course I had no idea where we were and there was no point for me to even look around as the garage we were in had no windows whatsoever, but I did see other things, a massive armored vehicle for one and I really wanted to drive that thing.

Oh well, maybe later.

"So, now that we are here can you tell me something more or do we talk more about sports?" I asked again.

"Well it involves a lot of sciency stuff so I may not be the best to explain it. If I had to sum it up this is a Noah's ark projekt." Ok that set of way too many alarm bells in my head and also way too many questions.

"When you say Noah's ark you mean the one that was made to survive the end of the world?" I tried to confirm as we left the garage into a normal looking hallway.

"The one and only."

I breathed out heavily and while various questions ran through my mind, questions like, why me, how and when. Most of these questions belonged into 'sciency stuff' territory as such I simply followed along.

We reached a plain looking door and entered to find a lab coat guy sitting at his desk typing away at his computer.

He didn't seem to notice us at first being to deep in his work. "Professor Martin? We brought the last guy in." Now that didn't sound ominous at all.

"Ah, yes thank you gentlemen you are dismissed for now." And with that they left the room."So, I am sure you have a few questions... " understatement much?"... but allow me to explain first. This is government lead installation that is made for the purpose of preserving human life, culture and technology in the case a apocalyptic scenario. Ones such scenario is close right now." He said that so calmly I had trouble believing him. "To be exact the world is being flooding right now and the whole surface will be covered in water in a few years making it completely uninhabitable for all land based creatures."

It must have been very comical for someone who watched this conversation from the outside with no tone with the multiple faces and emotions I made right then and there.

I was struggling to find the like words for this and chose to wait it out and look around the room for hidden cameras and the likes. After it became apparent that I was waiting for nothing I formed my first question."What is causing it? Because that global warming crap has been going on since I am a child and the polar caps don't have nearly enough water to flood the whole world."

"Global warming was fake, it was something else that made the water levels rise and we had, and still don't have, any way to stop it." He shows emotions at the fact that he couldn't solve a problem rather than the fact that many people are going to die. I like this man. "Basically there is a insanely large gas pocket that is beneath one of the tectonic plates and the gas started to leak, the gases are mostly H₂O, with a few stranger ones in the mix that range from radioactive to acidic and corrosive. We have estimated that they will severely change the ecosystem of the oceans but the main problem is that there is simply too much of them and when they reach the surface and condense back into water they will flood the whole world while simultaneously sinking the american continent below sea level."

I took of my glasses and rubbed my eyes."There isn't any chance that this is some TV show crap that you are pulling right now?"

"I am afraid not, but to get the usual questions out of the way. There are many arc projects that are currently running around the globe, this is simply one of the first ones and will launch and one of the most promising ones, you are chosen because you are in perfect health and have a very high chance to survive this, are very calm and collected, have a degree in electrical engineering and some of your books count as cultural property under the preservation act of 2023 so trying to save the author along the way is a boon if you will.

I… really didn't know how to respond to this, at all, the things the lab coat told me were way too much.

"Also you don't have anything really holding you here, familie dead or no contact, no girl or boyfriend and not much social contacts besides online interactions in some really old games." Rude, also thank you for confirming you spy on me bastards. "If you wish to talk with someone we have multiply highly trained personnel that is willing to listen?" I would have questioned your sanity if you didn't offer me that option right now.

"I… am good for now." I thought over his words and what to say next."You have yet to tell me what exactly we will be doing."

"Cryosleep." came the one word reply and I probably made a funny face again because he added."Yes you heard me right."

"We, as in the human race, can already do that?" I asked curiosly.

"Yes." Came the short answer that I wasn't buying at all.

"And we can do it safely?" I dug deeper.

"In your case…" thinking break, I know you are about to lie to me buddy "We have a 85% chance to be perfectly fine. If you want to know more about the direct process I am sure the doctors will love to tell you more about it, but to finish this up all your personal belongings are taken care of and everything that can be preserved until your planned wakeup call you can take with you. You will have a list delivered to you with everything that will be taken along, and you can add things that we might have forgotten but it has to be approved first." Want to get rid of me quickly buddy?"Here is your pass..." He said passing me a shiny green name plate."And the gentleman outside will lead you to your room, tomorrow we start preparing your body for the procedure."

"Preparing in what way?" I asked with a bit of fear

"Physical training,..." Flinch."Dieting,..." Flinch."and at the end a very long medical procedure."

"Joy." He really didn't want to talk more about details, I probably shouldn't pressure him about it."Well, time to meet and drill some doctors then."

* * *

I really shouldn't have asked, basically I will get placed on a operation table, have all my bodily fluids drained and replaced with something that will keep my body from decaying in any way. Apparently the newest toy that chemical engineers have come up with, and I also will have a few of my organs modified, as example, there will be a 'net' placed around my heart that will make sure that the pump will keep going and also restart it when I am supposed to 'wake up'.

It was not fun to have pictures of what will be done showed into my face.

How was I dealing with all of this? I like to think with my calm and collected personality, but the psychologist was helping.

After a few exiting weeks where I got to know my fellow freeze buddies that would be out cold with me, ha, and requested a few extra things to bring along with me, what things? That's privat.

I also got some infos on the other arcs apparently some floating island, massive ships, a few spaceships, and a bunker where all in the making and only had about one year to finish.

A few months passed and the final physical evaluation happened, I was cleared and branded ready as one of the first few with the other still going through body preparations.

So there I was nearly naked on a table soon to be set on ice."It's funny how all the sci-fi stories portray capsules that simply freeze you in place, that would never work on humans." Also my doctor was here for my last talk so to speak."Well if you allow me to sum up..."

"Please spare me the details, the first time I had pictures of my frozen internal organs showed into my face I was grossed out enough."

"Haha, yes our surgeons are very enthusiastic about this procedure, it is a operation of a lifetime after all." he said with a wink. I like this guy."But to sum it up, we will put you to sleep, prepare your body, insert the machinery that will restart you after the time has passed..." another detail that many omitted was how long we would stay frozen for, something to do with the fact that they didn't know when or even if there ever will be ground to live on. Apparently after the procedure is done there was nothing that had to be done other then keep my body sealed completely airtight which wasn't hard at all by today's standards, everything would have safety procedures on the safety procedures that were safety procedures for the safety procedures of the project so that nothing could go wrong. As reassuring as everything was, there was still one details that I dug out after some longer questioning, apparently there was a 30% chance that my body would not restart properly and leave me dead with my heart net simulating pumping for a few hundred years until even this ingenious creation would stop working.

All in all a solid plan, or so I and the 48.635 other people were told multiple times each and everyone had their own capsule, a own backup energy source just in case, and a plushy when(if) we wake up.

Also urinating will feel like pissing acid because of the leftover preservation fluids for a while so yay me I guess.

"Well, let's do this." I told the doctor.

"I wish you good dreams then." The doc said while injecting the good night serum into me.

* * *

Question. How does it feel to be dead?

Answere. It doesn't.

The first thing I noticed after I had been put to sleep was cold. Good, that meant it worked and I am not dead.

Slowly light became visible, that was normal as the light very slowly started to get to the same level that was outside to not damage my retina, my breathing was heavy as as was everything else around, with and inside me luckily there was no pain. But there would be when all of my nerves started working properly again.

I was not looking forward to that, so far everything seems to be in order as I slowly moved and tested my body as much as was possible for me. I also started to hear again made evident by Evanescence softly singing, we were allowed a song to chose to wake up to, our hearing to had to be softly awakened and her songs were always pleasant.

The lids started to slide open above me and the ceiling of the facility greeted me, strange I expected some medical personnel to greet me when I wake up and take my vitals and junk like that. Hm, maybe the machines did that for them when they reanimated me and pumped blood back into me.

Speaking of which I now that I saw the previously opened holes in my body they started to hurt.

Well at least that meant that I was working to that extend.

Also. Ouch!

I lifted myself up and stretched my arms up instinctively while feeling one of the most satisfying cracks of my neck in ages, while this was happening I was yawning and because of that my eyes were closed and I didn't see the horrified/fascinated/reality questioning looks that I was receiving.

When I finally did open my eyes I really was expecting some lab coats or at least someone to be there at all, not whatever those things where.

Those things being the strange, disturbingly wrong proportioned kid with tentacles on its head and that literally walking Octopus.

…

…

What. The. Fuck?!

Ok, Ok, calm down, is this meds doing some shit to my head? No, I was clinically dead, there is nothing supposed to be in my system, despite how disgusting some if it was, I digged through all of the sleeping process carefully and nothing of this kind was ever mentioned.

What other options where there? This seemed very surreal and so far we all just keep staring at each other. Halluzination from brain damage? Possible, but so far nothing was grabbing my shoulders or asking me stuff so no, also I was pretty sure brain damage didn't work that way.

So, right now I had two Aliens look at me while I probably looked even more alien to them then they did to me.

The implications were… worrying to sum it up in one word. I slowly started to look around and recognized the area. Everyone was given a good explanation and time to remember the installation, speaking of everyone where are the… Red. Red lights everywhere. This was not good at all, I need a computer right this instance. I moved and to my satisfaction the after effects didn't seem to great, we were warned that in the worst case whole limbs might be rendered unusable, but so far except for that annoyingly painful stinging all over my body everything seemed to be fine.

In my panic I forgot that I was being watched and I turned back to them and found out that they still stood rooted in place but now threw hushed whispers at each other.

Well they haven't shot me so far so maybe they had even less of an Idea what was going on then I did.

I shuddered as I discovered that the room was cold as ice and the fact that everything was metal and cold didn't help it. I needed to get to the end of the room. The door there should hold clothes food and a few other special things. While it surely would be nice and insightful to chat with aliens I decided that I would rather not for now.

Well here goes nothing. I wiggled my limbs a bit and while they did sting all over nothing was preventing my movement.

Well as much as this silent conversation you were having was entertaining to watch strange strangers but I must go.

And with that last thought I took of running. At first they seemed to shocked to react but then I heard them shout out something in their strange gibberish language. Well not that it mattered, the ground was simply way too cold under my feet to consider stopping.

I reached the door hit the panel a few times while hopping around on my feet and rushed in as it opened. It was still cold as hell but at least the was a carpet in this room. I would have tried to seal the door behind me but I had no idea how to do that with no security codes. If they wanted they could have just followed me, provided they knew how to operate our stuff and could physically do it.

I had a designated locker that was shown to me earlier(an unknown amount of years.) and quickly clothed myself while being thankful for the advice of putting warm stuff into the lockers.

Now I needed to think because all of this was way too much to take in, what to do…

* * *

"What in the king, and all the holy lands name just happened?!" Mario shouted with a mix of rage and confusion.

"That… was a precursor, I think." Hina admitted with a twitch in her eye. Her brain tried to come up with a logical explanation for what she had just witnessed and replayed everything in her mind slowly.

First the, what she assumed was the battery, started what she originally called box and after whatever it did, finished it slid out and a… thing that was twice her height lifted itself out of it while she heard sounds of things cracking that disturbed her down to the tentacles. Then the creature that was way taller than her, and had many, sharp looking teeth in its mouth evident by the way it stretched, simply looked at them, then looked around and simply ran off without a word. Hina tried to shout out after it but to no avail.

And it ran fast, like, she had never seen anything going so fast, it reached the end of the hallway hit the wall besides it a few times and then the door opened before it disappeared inside of the room and the door closed.

Also there was music playing during all of this.

All of this happened so fast.

She looked around and while she vaguely heard Mario rage around in the background barking orders at her and the others the implications of the boxes were not very disturbing.

"We need to talk to it!" She said with determination.

"... get that… Wait what?!" He shouted at her.

"Think, we just woke up something that was asleep for who knows how long while we drilled a hole into its door and invaded what is probably its home." Hina reasoned. In truth this was the greatest opportunity she could have ever hoped for, their race was thought to be extinct since over 12 000 years and she found one that was alive, how this was possible she didn't understand at all.

But she didn't need to, she could ask.

She could literally go there and ask the very creature that made it possible and this was only one of SO. MANY. Questions she had.

But first she had to convince it that she and the others where no threat.

Not that she in her unarmed state was any kind of danger to it.

"Hina, you are a great scientist, I admit that. But you deal with dead things, things that can't harm you. This thing!" he said pointing in the direction of where the precursor went."Is freaking alive and very well capable of harming you!"

"But it didn't!" She argued back, this opportunity she would not waste because of that old warsalmon!"If it wanted to attack us it already would have done so when it woke up. But as you can clearly see both of us are fine! Well I am not looking at your mental state." she said the last part under her breath.

"I will not have you risk your life because of your insane obsession with those old fossils!" He shouted back now giving his full attention to her

"This is not just some old fossil that we are dealing with! This is a living creature that came from way before us, that probably has knowledge and secrets that we have never even dreamed of!" by now the rest of the crew has stopped what they were doing and watched the heated argument. Argument such as this one where common but this was right now was big and no one knew really what to do, so the winner of this one would decided on what the next step was. And so everyone waited and watched.

"I am the security supervisor of this operation." Oh, he didn't dare pull that card."As such I can overrule every decision you made on the ground of a compromise in the operations safety and I will do so if I must." Oh it's so on!

"I am well aware of that," Hina admitted."but what you are forgetting is that I can file a complaint for abuse of power directly to the Queen..." She made sure to say Queen with as much meaning as possible to drive home the point of Octavio not being the King right now."And we both know who she would listen to." She whispered to him only mere centimeters from his face away.

The fact that the new queen was a Octoling herself did wonders for Hinas financial powers and allowed her way more influence than Octavio would have ever permitted, this whole operation was only allowed because Hina made sure to be on the best possible terms with her.

Mario stared at her with rage nearly exploding out of his face."Fine, have it your way brat." before she could allow herself to grin one of his tentacles grabbed her by the collar."But mark my words, if I find this creature to be too dangerous or harm any in the expedition your orders can go straight to the sharks." With those words he turned around and went back to the camp.

Hina waited a few seconds before releasing the breath she was holding and turned to the groupe."Alright people, pack up, we will set up camp just outside the installation. Don't want to bunker directly inside someone's home."

* * *

OK, there were a few possibilities what was going on. So I had to filter them out.

Option one. Aliens. This was not very likely as they as far as I could see had no space suits and stuff like that there was the option that they were simply too advanced for them but that was quickly scratched because that would mean that scanning equipment and similar things should be on a similar level and they looked as surprised as I was at seeing me. Also there was no reaction that indicated that this was planned so for now Aliens was of the list.

Next thing on the list, Hallucinations. The problem with this one was that I had no real way to test this at all so for now this to was stored away.

This already limited the possibilities quite a bit but as the encounter replayed in his mind another option came to mind. That thing next to the kid, as he decided to call it, looked like a octopus while the the kid also had octopus like tentacles on its head. Science Fiction was my fort and the scenario to wake up to a future where humans are no longer the dominant species is not so unlikely… But octopy? They were indeed known for their great brain powers so maybe that allowed them surpass everything else.

This also left another big problem, how many years have passed? Evolution like this didn't happen very fast and it would explain why so many blinking red lights where there.

Did this mean the arc failed and they were left to die peacefully? A somber thought.

I wandered a bit and got to Doctor Martins office, maybe his PC had some answers, if he didn't password protect everything that is.

Well here goes nothing!

It booted it up but what I was not expecting was to see Doctor Martins face in the screen. But it was strange, he looked older, I wonder how much time has passed between this and the last time we saw each other.

"How the hell am I even supposed to say this?" He said to someone offscreen."Ha, yea whatever you say." he sighed and turned his attention to the camera."Hello to whoever is watching, my name is Doctor Martin Zuckerback. And I am officially setting the status of project 'Cold arc' to suspended for an indefinite time." You mother fu.."The project is working perfectly fine so far but the problem that we found is that after the first gas eruptions the seafloor became more unstable then anticipated and underwater volcanoes the size of the Yellowstone started to accelerate the process to levels that no one could predict and we don't even have the time to properly calculate it. We… the human race is most likely doomed." Shit."There are a few arcs that have potential to survive, the few shuttles that we managed to launch to mars might lead to something but there is little chance in them actually being able to create a functioning growing Civilization there." By this point tears were flowing out of his eyes. "If anyone ever gets to see this recording then whoever you are, the rooms you passed on your way to this computer contained around 50.000 humans who are frozen down and perfectly preserved, each and every containment unit should be out of power by now. The near perfect isolation and protection that we included in this building should keep perfect conditions intact for as long as no meteor crashes into this building so there is that."He sighed again and lit a Cigar."Lucky bastards, getting to sleep and maybe one day waking up to meet aliens or something insane like this, huh, if not they at least won't know. I on the other hand am too old for the process by now. The security codes for the whole building are in my drawer including multiple security cards, whoever you are, good luck." And with that the feed cut of.

I sat in the chair for a while only staring at the now open desktop of the computer. I was simply at loss of what to do.

I got my answers I suppose. Not that I like them, but that is what I asked for isn't it? By this point a few tears were on my face to. I wiped them away when noticing took a deep breath.

Step by step, that is how you tackle problems. First things first, how much time has passed, if my theory is correct then holy hell this installation stood for a long time and is probably buried in water or dirt.

Normally I would just look into the corner of the screen and see the date but the year 9999 showed me that his was not an option. If it did count and then simply hit a cap then eight millennia then that was a good starting point, I would accept that as a answer for now. Next, the other people, they are currently out cold(I am so not sorry for overusing that) and I needed to find a way to recharge the their beds or they would become coffins.

What options did I have? The facility had energy right now so where was that coming from? With that i started to search the computer, thankfully it was well organized and I found documents about the arc projects fairly quickly it took a while to find and type in all the codes that he left behind but in the end I had a complete floor plan and description of the building.

And guess what, there was no generator. AT. ALL. Apparently if the notes are anything to go by any reactors that came in question where nuclear or similar which was deemed too dangerous for sustained use. BUT, and this is a big one, the used a EXPERIMENTAL battery that is supposed to have theoretically 0,0032% power loss over one year in unused state.

Wait, that is how I can check! The facility should have been completely switched off until I woke up and if the recharged it to full before leaving it then I should have a rough outline, I just need to include how much the systems ate and luckily for me I had that in a nice graph after I opened the diagnostic programs. The facility was at 63% right now and if I read this correctly then it ate about 9% for temperature regulations. So add that and then divide the loss with the theoretical inactiv loss per year to get… 11.875 years.

I was back in my chair and staring at the ceiling.

* * *

Hina didn't know what to do. She pushed all her cards to get this option and now she simply had not idea how to approach this in the first place. How do you talk to something that probably can't even make the same sounds as you?! They were fundamentally different life forms and with the way it fled when they saw each other it had no real interest talking to them.

Still she had to try something after they packed everything up again the created a temporary camp right outside the entrance. They found a few weak points to enter the large building that was found nearly completely buried but finding weak points on these metal monsters was like saying that you knew how to defeat a mountain simply because you knew explosives could move it if used in high enough quantity.

It was insanely hard to enter the buildings and the worst thing was that if you did manage to for example cut a solid hole into it something from the inside would immediately seal it shut again, with a material that was much weaker but still annoyingly hard to get rid of. As such closing the hole they made was out of the question, they would need way too long to get in again. But right outside shouldn't bother the precursor to much, right?

Also she really needed to find a new name for it. Calling it Precursor was getting annoying.

She needed to start interaction with something simple. So she drew a picture, a picture of herself waving and on a grassy field.

Was this a good idea? Nope, not in the slightest, for all she knew green was the color of death and decay for them.

Still, she was running on borrowed time, progress needed to happen now or it would happen never.

So here she was, back in the hallway with possibly thousands of them sleeping and only waiting to get awoken. Also the red blinking lights were disconcerting.

'Focus Hina!' she shouted to herself in her mind and wandered the hallway picture in hand.

She reached the door and placed the picture on the ground. It would probably find it the moment it stepped out.

Hina was about to leave as quickly as she could but hesitated on the first step back thinking how if it didn't know it was there it maybe would never find it.

She turned around and did something insanely stupid.

She knocked.

* * *

I feel like needels are being poked into my whole body stinging me like hell, I knew that this was normal because many cells died in my long nap and this pain was already preventing me from getting any real sleep.

And then when I do finally fall asleep someone knocks at the damn door. Oh there is hell to pay.

with the most grumpy and pissed of look I could muster I stomped to the door and opened them. While only wearing my pyjamas I might add.

When the door opened there was no one there.

Was I just pranked by someone?

My expression turned even more angry at probably showing some teeth in the process.

Then I heard some whimpering from below. I turned my head to look down and my anger instantly evaporated as I saw the Octopus alien stare at me with wide eyes. That was when I remembered exactly what situation I was in.

What to do in this situation you ask.

Simple you do nothing and both stare at each other like complete fools unsure what to do.

It took my body to feel the cold that was coming from the cryo room that living things are supposed to interact.

"Hi." I said lifting my hand a waving down at her.

She returned the gesture and said what I think was the equivalent in her language and imitated my hand motion. After that I finally noticed the picture at my feet. I took it and it was a drawing of the same thing that was in front of me, a fairly good drawing at that, where it was waving and was standing on grass.

I took the picture, backed up while looking at her and slowly closed the door never taking my eyes of her.

And I have to say to this day that this was the best second contact I could have ever imagined.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Hey, so just as a short info. This story I was working on a for a while and already have a few chapters finished so posting speed of the first few will depend on how lazy I or my friends are with editing. After that it depends on my mood honestly. I was encouraged to publish this because my friends said that it's good. Originally this was just my idea of how a realistic SI would look like so so expect some hard science sections here and there and a few of my own interpretations. This also started a while before Splatoon 2 but I think I managed to incorporate that as well without going to crazy.

Also at most there will be two main viewpoints, Hina, The Human, and the Octarian Queen who will be introduced later, with a few minor things here and there to explain or explore things better.

That said. Have fun and review!

* * *

I woke up the next day and luckily most of the pain seemed to have faded by now. I fixed myself something to eat and was hating the fact that no watches could reliable tell me what time it was as I suspected most of them were broken by now, the mechanicals at least, the computers I frankly didn't trust either.

Still, no time to waste. Now that I could actually move without everything being pain I needed to plan.

I started digging around and found some equipment. This facility was equipped with nearly everything that humans could account for if only sparingly. As such getting my way to the gear like gasmask and the like was actually pretty easy.

If those Octopy could live then it couldn't be to bad, still safety first. I chose to not go with a full hazmat for now, instead if focused on measuring equipment, some of it was broken but most of it was usable and didn't need much knowhow from my side. It simply would inform me if the area was death for humans and death by what.

I walked around the base and inspected the entrances that lead to the outside. There were many of them around the facility incase halve the building got buried underground or something similar. Sadly I found out that most of them were sealed shut. Something on the outside, be it a solid wall of dirt or radiation(I still had my doubts about sensors working for so long. Those on the inside? Possibly, outside? No way.)

Those that were not, well there was only one and that would lead me directly to the guys that apparently woke me up by accident.

Now I doubted that they meant any harm to me, or at least that one that gave me the picture probably didn't. If will have to walk past them I probably should take something along with me to give, the picture was nice but I wasn't nearly good enough at drawing things.

Putting on all the gear I could find I prepared to go back to the cryo room, while you could argue that I was overdoing it, the fact that I wasn't deadly sick or something similar could have simply been a fluke.

As I entered I found that I luckily was alone this time. I started inspecting my pod and typing away at the display, it was fairly boring information with most just being the status of the pod, but hallo there, in the options menu there was something about occupant status.

I clicked it and found a few details about my health. They were measured from the machines when I was still out cold(I will make that pun as often as I damn well please!) most of it seemed normal but in the right bottom corner there was another option that read retrieve occupant data.

I clicked it and a hatch opened revealing my pass that I revived from the dear Doctor, I was instructed to carry it with me at all times but I never asked why. I put it into my pocket and left back to the facility and into my personal room booting up my computer.

Now let's see if this hard drive that was promised to last forever really would hold to its promise. I pressed to power button and it seemed like the promises were held as I saw my normal startup screen.

After some thinking I started up a new document and started to type away describing exactly what has happened to this point. I planned to update this journal every day if I could with as much stuff as possible, maybe attach audio files and measurements for the science guys later on, be they human or whatever.

For now I had a objective, find a way to power the other capsules and wake up what is possible the rest of my kind.

I rubbed my eyes tiredly something I did too often already.

* * *

Hina was freaking out, this on itself was not really rare and most people knew to simply avoid her when she had one of her infamous rage outs.

Most of the time she had those only for a half an hour at max but this one was on its way to record time with her raging around for 40 minutes already.

The reason for that was simple, she had no pictures of the precursor.

This whole time she had a camera with her and not a single time she thought about taking a picture. As she needed to make the report for the day she wanted to add a picture of the creature to the related text only to realize that she didn't have one!

She was raging around the camp cursing in ways that make her uncle faint. She had enough control over herself to not lash out against any equipment or members of her team but needless to say most of the expedition excused itself for a fresh air break when they realized that it was going to be one of those days again.

Mario was not most of the staff, and he made it a lifelong duty to annoy her even more, or at least that's what she thought when she saw him approaching while she considered what or who to curse next as she sadly had nothing in reach to throw that was actually disposable.

"Look who is having a hissy fit, what is it this time?" She wondered how far she could throw the old bastard.

"Picture, I don't have a single king forsaken, shark busted, inkling damned picture of the precursor!" She screamed in his face.

"Why don't you just take one then? By now the two of you should be best friends already." He was taunting her, she knew that. Despite being a feared, strong and aggressive Octoling she had no real combat experience that could compare to his, she knew that very well and hated it with a passion, but she swore that she would get him back for it one day.

Normally she would think of something smart to retort back but right now she really wasn't in the mood. "Why don't you Kraken wannabe take your saas and show it up your ink sack, maybe then you inkless bastard actually would be worth something!" she definitely shouldn't have said that but right now she really didn't care.

"Oh, look at you curse like the big Octoling you are, oh I am so scared." He didn't seem to be phased at all, that didn't sit right with her, it meant that he had something planned.

Hina having raged enough was back thinking a bit more clearly."What did you do?" She asked menacingly.

"Oh, nothing that is worth mentioning, I just.."But before he could finish his sentence the proximity alarms they set up started to rattle and inform them that something was closing in towards the camp.

Hinas rage was momentarily forgotten and everyone was back at full attention from the normal activities."Where did that come from?" Mario shouted to one of the guards. Who looked up and pointed to the cave. This could only mean one thing, the precursor came out of the building. "Ha, oh Hina your friend is coming out, what shall we do, make him a cup of tea?"

She would deal with whatever mess the tentacle sucker created later, right now she had to deal with this. So far there was nothing aggressive about it but there was no telling what it was up to now. "Everyone hide! We don't want to startle it with numbers."

"And what you will just stand there?" one of the scientist shouted towards her.

"That is exactly the plan." Hina stated this time she had her camera ready.

Everybody went into the tents and some chose to watch from the shadow of the plants, everybody hid just in time because in the next moment rounding the corner it came, it had to duck because of it's size and the only thing that let Hina know that it actually was the precursor was how tall it was. Back when she first saw it it had no clothing on and the second time there was some of it, but now she felt completely tiny before the imposing giant.

It was fully clothed in many layers and all over its body. A hoodie over the head, the face masked with one of the old masks they sometimes found, and thick clothes and gear whose functions she could only guess.

There wasn't a single speck of skin visible on it and by the looks of it it had double its weight with the clothes alone.

It looked around and she heard talking coming from it, what or who it was talking to she had no idea.

It lifted it's hand and she heard the same sound when she gave it the picture, it was a bit distorted because of the mask. She assumed it to be a greeting and just waved back and watched as it started to look at the various instruments that it had strapped to its body. All of that while talking to itself.

At this point she was pretty sure that it was scouting the outside and taking some measurements of the surroundings.

After it seemed to have finished with its work it carefully looked around, could it see where the other where hiding? It walked towards Hina and who was unsure of what to do, it stopped a few paces away and reached behind it's back, where a backpack was placed that she hadn't noticed until now, and pulled something something box like out and placing it on one of the tables that protested against the sudden weight. It then pointed at Hina and then at the box.

It's intentions clear Hina approached carefully and now that she looked at it closer she recognized the thing. It was a book. A gigantic one. Hina has never seen such a collection of paper, paper that was probably filled with knowledge about things from times long forgotten and things that most archaeologists and precursor specialists were dreaming of.

The precursor was forgotten and greedy the book was practically ripped open, to her disappointment she couldn't read it but. It was written in its language but that was to be expected, still this was the largest collection of written text coming from a precursor she had ever seen, and as she flipped the papers she found that to her great enjoyment there were many pictures there to. Some of them showing other precursors while others showed strange things she had no idea how to even name.

This, she never expected to see something like this, the book itself as she looked at it was as alien as the content, it felt strange to touch the paper as it didn't feel like paper at all.

And it was heavy, way heavier than she expected she tried to lift it a bit but she could barely push it a few centimeters when she pushed with all her might.

The precursor seems to find this amusing. As some strange barking sound came from it, she was pretty sure that it was laughing. Naturally this hurt her pride as a big and fearsome Octoling and she tried to lift it again. With all her might she pushed upwards and to her satisfaction one side of the book lifted ever so slightly.

Only when she dropped it again the table collapsed beneath it.

Hina now with one eye twitching could only stare at the ground where to book was now on top of the flat table as the barking, she was now 100% sure that it was laughter, continued.

As it started to calm down it again started to look around and after choosing a direction, it started to walk again. The surrounding area was on a plain and surrounding the mountain that hid the facility, there was water in one direction and Inkling turf in the other.

Currently it was walking towards the water slowly while carefully studying the surroundings and ever so often speaking beneath its mask and looking at the tools it had with it. All the while Hina and a few others were following it.

It obviously didn't mind, it had seen them but didn't even react to it.

They reached the top of a hill and stopped as the creature was taking in the water Hina tried to see some of the reactions but the mask was blocking everything, the only thing she heard was breathing and the occasional talking.

It started to move again. Hina expected it to it would stop and look around carefully studying its surroundings, but now it was a straight line without stop and Hina had a hard time to keep up with it.

It reached the coast and Hina started to get nervous, everybody knew that for Octarians and Inklings the oceans meant death, their body could not hold itself together in the water and would literally fall apart, this was the cost they had to pay to become land creatures as they now where lighter and more agile than ever going so far as being able to nearly completely liquify in their own ink.

But the precursor it seemed didn't even seem to be a tiniest bit bothered by the water as it calmly walked towards it, its boots being now partly submerged and its clothes being hit by water with every wave.

For a while it just stood there before taking out more tools and using them on the water.

What they were measuring Hina had no idea. It even went so far as to collect some of the water in bottles and packed it away.

It turned around and walked back seemingly satisfied with whatever it did and on the way back Hina made sure to make a big circle around the water that was still sticking to its boots and dripping of ever so slightly.

They reached the camp and the precursor, calling it that became really annoying by now, stopped right before the entrance of the cave and seemed to be in deep thought, or that was what it looked like judging by the way it was stroking the bottom of it's mask.

It turned around and walked to another table and sat on the ground, then it reached into its backpack and took a few sheets of paper out and a pen.

Then it started drawing. Hina of course was very curious what exactly it wanted to share with them but so far it was only squares, a field of 3 times 10 then it started to fill them out the first one on the top left was left empty and the rest were filled with dots, every field had one more dot then the next.

As Hina finally understood she started to drool, she would get numbers, she as the first ever Octarians archaeologist would get numbers translated into the amount they represented.

Her hands were shaking with anticipation as each and every line that was drawn on the paper took shape and as the last symbol was finally filled in she couldn't hold herself any longer and noted it in every way she possibly could she made multiple(hundreds) of photos copied the exact shapes into multiple notes she had with her. Only when she was about to draw them on the wall of a tent she rilzed how stupid she must have looked.

The precursor simply stared at.

Then he fell backwards and was holding his sides while rolling around in laughter.

Hina wanted to sink into a puddle and never come back out again.

It took a while but it(she didn't even know it's gender or if it had one for the matter!) calmed down and made a hand gesture towards her before pointing at the paper. Only the second and first row of boxes were filled out and the third was left free. It wanted to learn Octarian numbers in return and Hina was more then happy to fill them out for it but she ran into a problem, the Octarian numbers only reached from zero to seven. She could simply fill out the rest of them but she didn't want to create a misunderstanding with the number system.

The precursors obviously used base ten as she could see but how would she tell that they used base eight. It seemed to notice her hesitation for the last few spaces and added a few other things to the paper. One new box was added and filled with thirteen dots and below it the symbols for one and three were filled in with the one first and the three second. The precursor didn't give her the paper right way but chose to take a new sheet and made a new roaster but this time added numbers from ten to… twenty three? At first Hina didn't understand but as it added more and more numbers and connected lines from the original one things became more clear.

It was different from Octarian numbers but not vastly. Hina understood the basics after enough lines were drawn and thus connections were made she understood.

Hina as the first Archaeologist of her species understood the numbers of the precursors.

On this day the smile on her face could melt the sun.

* * *

I didn't know what to expect when I left the facility as such I tried to prepare of everything I could think of.

The only problem I couldn't really prepare for was the Octopy people, finding their camp right outside the entrance basically forced me to interact with them but luckily that was something I expected. And the encyclopedia I gave them as a gift was very well received to say the least, this enthusiasm when reading, seeing and browsing the book felt good to look, but when the what I assumed to be the leader utterly failed to lift the book and the table collapsed I simply couldn't help myself but laugh my butt of.

The trip to the water was very eventless besides the fact that my company for some reason seemed to avoid it, maybe it was just my imagination?

I had many fancy testing stuff in the facility and many down to earth descriptions on how to use them, I didn't need to be a engineer to use them, but it helped.

Back to the matter at hand, as I reached the entrance of the facility again with my octopy friends I started to think again, even if the water was good, not drinkable but filterable, and the air was breathable I had nothing really solid, like it or not I needed the knowhow of someone who lived here and knew the area.

I needed their help, and the sooner the better.

Considering they were a completely different species I doubted they had any understanding of our language so I started simple with numbers, luckily I didn't needed to think of how to approach this, one of my books already dealt with that topics and as the author I claim the right of copying.

When the Octopy mutations realized what I was doing I tried to hold back, I really did, but in the end I failed and fell flat on my behind while laughing my butt off, again.

It was nice to see they blushed in a similar way we did, only with the color of their tentacles.

Still, after that first little stepping stone got out of the way we got pretty far.

I learned a few things like that their number system was base eight but a problem also appeared later on.

I tried to show it how to say our numbers and after a few tries she got it, seven must mean something funny in their language because there was hesitation in it and one of the other Octopy around us hid a snickered as my study buddy tried to copy it very reluctantly.

Then my turn came and I ran into a problem at the number four, they had sounds that I was not sure I could copy accurately, after a few unsuccessful tries I chose to leave that be for now, I was recording literally everything around me that I could think of, later on I could practice in peace.

Sadly it was getting late and I needed to start the analysis on the samples so it could work overnight. Still there was one last thing I wanted to know before I finished.

I stashed all the papers to signal that it's over for today, which resulted in the most heartbroken look I have ever seen.

Well not like I would never come back, I told myself to shush the guilt. I stood up and pointed at various objects and naming them which made the Octopy stare at me in confusion. It cleared up when in the end I pointed at myself and said 'Human' then I pointed at my Student/Teacher.

The sound she made I could luckily copy fairly accurately "Octoling." I said making the word roll of my tongue. It seemed to make the creature incredibly happy.

Well it was time for me to go.

I went to the cave and waved my goodbyes for now.

I could claim the this was a very productive day.


	3. Chapter 3

Hina wanted to gut Mario, take all his nerve ends and turn them inside out before slowly submerging them in water.

That slimy bastard bad behind her back informed the council of her findings.

In return she received direct orders, capture the creature for interrogation, those old, greedy fools had no idea what they were even ordering! When she tried to explain the situation she was told to stop following delusions and get them more energy sources, they didn't believe good relations with the precursor were valuable enough or should be wasted time on. They died out for a reason they say, they can't possibly have anything more valuable than the Zapfish they say.

She really wanted to know what they would say once they realize they doom their whole species, she doubted they would ever admit it but one could dream.

Still, she needed to deal with this. She doubted that she could get the meaning across to the creature of the danger coming towards it, however she could try to get it to come with them by more peaceful means, should they reach Octovalley she would call in a few favours and turn the situation to her favour.

The hardest part she had yet to accomplish namely talking to the creature and getting it to come with them, she hammered at the door for a while now and honestly she doubted that she was heard.

Her persistence was awarded as the door opened, she was expecting the fully clothed Human again, she needed to remind herself that this is what it wanted to be called.

What she got was what she wanted kinda, it only had one layer of fabric on as far as she could see, also its eyes looked strange with many red lines running through them, she was fairly sure that before that part of its eyes was pure white.

Also Hina was about 90% sure it was angry the way it looked at her, she would apologize later after..., although, no, she would be thanked if this worked.

Quickly she tried to start a communication."Human!" she shouted out pointing at him and then at the papers she prepared.

The first pictures showed had the human depicted and herself walking, the second one had had them depicted again only the background was houses and similar, the third one had them standing before the throne and the queen.

In truth the council wanted to get the human first and get his information under the nose of the queen.

Hina wouldn't let that happen.

It would result in them crediting the discoveries to themselves. While she was worried that they could also use it to however her standing and importance, the worst was that she had no idea what they would do with the knowledge they gained.

Hina knew that the Queen was far from the best choice for their race but her regiment so far got more done for their race in a few months as a whole then the council in years.

Even if it was a military dictatorial one.

She hoped that the Human would understand her.

It looked at the drawings for a while and then closed the door disappearing again.

* * *

I was ruedly awoken, again.

This time by loud knocking to the front door.

I don't know if sleeping on the lobby couch was a good idea or not, having the whole building to my disposal felt strange to say the least, but I wanted to be able to hear if they figured out the door and came walking in.

Anyway, the knocking ripped me out of my peaceful sleep and grumpy me moved to the door slightly sleep deprived and opened to reveal octopy/human/gremlin thing waiting for me. It could be my imagination but I think it was panicking.

I should try to learn their expressions for different emotions quickly to avoid misunderstanding.

Still the message was clear, I was officially invited to meet their leader. I suspected it was a queen with what I knew how female dominated Octopy as a species were back in the day, queen in regards to female ruler that is.

I needed to prepare myself.

I decided to go with the basic gear I had yesterday including gas mask, overcoat and all the other stuff and quickly put it on.

Now the more complicated part was what else I would take. One has to make an impression in front of royalty after all.

Maybe some gift? But what…?I could go for music the problem with that was that I had no idea if we even had the same frequency range of hearing. The lexicon for the scientist was already a book gift. If I was religious I would give her a bible but that spelled out trouble with big bold letters.

In the end I couldn't really decide so I just picked something I liked and hoped it would be seen as a nice gesture.

As I was about to leave but ran past the weapons locker, normally just picking up a gun would be out of the question but I reminded myself that I was going out into a world where everything was unknown and I had no idea what to expect. I decided to take a stun gun with me with the fitting holster and hid it under one of the layers of clothing.

Declaring myself ready I went to the door where the small octo-thing was waiting for me while walking up and down.

I think it didn't even noticed me lost in thought.

I had to fix, by getting into its path and letting it run straight into me and land on it's butt.

The glare it shot me was adorable, although I couldn't really call it a IT all the time so I settled for a HER for now. First she has kind feminine clothes, and also she was larger than all the others, looked also way more humanoid and I think those were feminine features.

We moved out with her being visibly nervous, and by now I was fairly sure that it indeed was nervousness. It was night for one, and for I am pretty sure she tried to tell me that we need to be quiet.

Frankly I had no idea if I should play along. The problem was that if I just go back I am still surrounded and it would only be a question of time until they got the door open. So right now I was asked to sneak through a camp by a nervous octogirl that pointed all the noise traps placed.

We seemed to have made it out without pulling any attention and for now I chose to just go along.

We moved at a relatively slow pace, probably because of the shorter legs of my companion, who now seemed to be a bit more calm.

We walked for about thirty minutes as we reached as something that looked like door on a waste pipe, a big waste pipe at that. I was a bit reluctant to go in there. However it looked like the octogirl had problems opening it alone. As the gentleman that I was I decided to help.

The door moved easier than expected and it earned me some disbelieving looks as I just moved it with one hand.

On the other side she pointed me to close it again and so I did.

The surrounding area was pretty dark, I theorized that something that evolved of a sea creature could have better eyesight in the dark. Well I didn't, as such I turned on my flashlight which scared the my companion to literally jump to the ceiling.

I didn't even know something could jump so high, that was at least six times her own body height.

She quickly came down again as she reliced the light came from me and we continued.

After a short march downwards we reached another door. This time it was opened for us by what I assumed to be guards, the had what looked like night vision goggles and most importantly guns.

They looked strange, a bit like toy guns to be honest, however I didn't want to test the effects on myself as such i just stayed back as my companion talked to them before they ushered both of us in.

After that a escort accompanied us in what I could only assumed was fast steps for them.

We reached what looked like one of the pictures drawn by octogirl when she knocked at my door so I assumed this was it, of to meet royalty then.

* * *

Hina couldn't believe that she pulled it off without any complications.

But here she was, she pulled a favour from one of the guards that she knew since her childhood, got an armed escorted to the palace and she was not followed, or at least she hoped she wasn't.

She entered with pride in her chest, of course the queen wasn't there she was probably asleep right now or doing business somewhere else, she couldn't expect her to sit on the throne all the time.

As such she waited, she was only told the the Queen would see to her shortly.

Meanwhile the human seemed to get bored, it started to walk around the room inspecting the things on the wall. This being the throne room it was very decorated with many things and many rulers added their personal touche making its history traceable on the walls.

The human walked up to the section that one of the more aggressive rulers decorated, it was filled out with skulls of many kinds, it was a collection nearly more extensive than the one the museum held.

Hina was sad that The queen turned of the power of most of those culture centers but she understood that they needed to preserve it, same with the throne room. O

riginally it was shining so bright that one could believe it was always day, now barely a way to the throne and the throne itself where lit.

It traced some of the skulls with its fingers, did those creatures means something to it? Did the skulls hanging like that offend it? Hina had a bad feeling as she was pretty sure among them were some precursor skulls as well.

Luckily they were interrupted by her majesty as she walked into the room.

Although judging by the look on her face how much luck she had was debatable.

She quickly bowed down and awaited the princess word, the human had yet to move from the spot but it's masked face was turned to them.

"Hina." She said acknowledging her presence."Raise. I really hope you have a good reason to drag me here at this hour. Also I assume that whatever that is..." she pointed at the human."...has to do with it."

"Yes your highness." Hina said raising her head slowly."This creature is at the center of it. First I regretfully have to inform you that the guard assigned to me wanted to commit treason."

"A very grave accusation, I hope you don't make one of those empty Hina, I have high hopes in you and your expeditions after you promised me so much."

"Promises I can deliver. However sadly no prove for the accusation, All I ask for you to hear me out on what has happened."

"Speak." she said sitting down on the throne. Hina did her best to tell the exact events that happened it the last few days and the Human came to her side while she spoke and placed it's backpack on the ground before going to its knees its face still turned towards the queen.

As Hina finished the story the queen studied the human for a while, it started to dig in its backpack and took something out that was backed into some foil and started to unpack as the whole room looked at it with interest.

It revealed a figure that the queen doubted anyone knew what it was supposed to represent and approached the throne placing the figure at her feet before going back it it's backpack.

"It still doesn't speak our language but I think it understood that we would be meeting royalty and prepared a gift for you I asume." Hina quickly explained as the queen took the figure the head offered some resistance and started to wobble back and forth as she placed it next to her.

Not the most interesting thing but she appreciated the gesture, it showed that the creature understood its position.

"So you believe that this creature, if we can reason with it, could solver a great deal of our problems and you also say that the council tried to move behind my back to get the creature to them, with violence if necessary, and then take full advantage of it."

"I… yes you highness, how did you know? I didn't..."

"Oh please,..." the queen interrupted."I have read your work, you are an interesting Octoling after all, most just join the army and fight, letting their agressions lead them. You on the other hand decided to continue like you did before your transformation and succeeded in become such a renowned scientist that the council had no choice but to appoint you, their dislike for Octolings be damned." She explained and watched as Hina blushed over her whole face."Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I want this creature to be studied, you are to teach it our language, failing that learn its own and uncover all its secrets, if there is anything of value in its head I want to know it."

"Yes your highness, I will not disappoint you." she practically squealed bowing down again. It was cute to watch, for the queen and the guards as well. The poor girl had to deal with hatred from her own kind for so long that she practically super jumped at the opportunity to support the queen.

The biggest reason why Octolings went to the army was not because of their innate aggression and strength compared to the rest of their kind, but because a girl that transformed into a Octoling instantly where feared most of the time, it was rare that a Octoling keep any social contacts with people that knew before they transformed.

It was ugly prejudice that run through their society that Octoling compared to regular octopy couldn't be trusted and one you transformed there was no way back, one was forever branded a aggressive abomination that only had a place as a warrior.

Hina ignored all of that and followed her dreams anyway.

However the girl was starved for attention, she maybe didn't even notice how much she needed the queen.

"I know you won't." she said lifting up her chin with a finger and smiling at her sweetly.

* * *

The interactions between the leader and the octogirl looked like something out of a evil empire movie. Even the dimly lit hallway fit right in.

Not that I minded, I was thankful for having all recording devices switched on.

That said I was unsure what to do now.

My guide was still awestruck with the queen who still spoke to her while scratching her chin, I really hoped I could use this as blackmail one day. I swear I saw the guards aping them in the corner of my eye.

They talked a bit more and finally they turned their attention to me again, the Octogirl came over to me and with some paper and pens. She then started to write down something, it was symbols this time, she then pointed at them and made a sound while looking at me, she then reported it and pointed at me.

I suspected she wanted me to do the same. I wanted to try but everything sounded horrible through the gas mask, I checked all my scanners again before taking it of, doing the slow process I had all their eyes glued to me.

Understandable, but still a bit uncomfortable.

I placed the mask into my backpack and took a deep breath before recreating the sound she made.

The first few were easy and I think I learned the word for yes or correct and no or wrong as she always said them when the sound was ok or not and repeated the ones she was not satisfied with we continued that for a while and while the queen was watching with interest, I think she used this as a excuse for a break.

We continued this for a while until I got most of the alphabet down, with all of it recorded I was confident in being able to memorize it later and as such turned the game around and made her try my alphabet.

She had a significantly easier time with my sounds considering that they didn't involve much gurgling and similar, also most of their sounds had a really high pitch which I suspected was related to how small they are, I hoped that they didn't have sounds that were in a to high frequency for me to hear.

Again we changed it up as I got a somewhat devious idea. I took out the paper that had the numbers noted on them and revisioned them with her she was able to remember all of them but the number five, and then we reached seven and I am pretty sure that I could categorize their face become the color of their tentacles, yellow in her case, as blushing and that it conveniently ment the same for them as for us humans.

She had turned around to the queen and talked with some stuttering. They talked a bit before she reluctantly turned back to the paper and said seven.

The whole room erupted into laughter at that, I was really curious what it meant.

We continued for a while until I looked at my clock and it actually was already morning, I for one was tried and wanted to go back to bed. I started packing and pointed at the door to get my point across.

Again she only reluctantly agreed, adorable.

I bowed to the queen who I think understood the gesture and my study buddy and I left the building, I already forgot where we came from and started looking around with some confusion.

My internal musing was interrupted as I completely disoriented and stunned landed on my back as something impacted my face, and I heard a loud high pitched scream next to me.

I felt something on my face and refused to open my eyes for now, I twisted around to face the ground and removed some of it with my gloved hands before taking fishing around in my jacket for the water bottle, I found it and splashed it into my face. I carefully opened my eyes and found that I had no problems seeing, however as the surprise faded the sounds appeared, I turned around and found that there was what I at best could describe as a paint fight between the queens guards and some other octopy of the smaller nonhuman variant.

I would think this to be a prank, kids playing with paint, however that ilusion was quickly shattered when I saw some of the fighters literally blow up in paint.

Only then it finally clicked that I just have been shot with said paint that this is a attack that can kill me, in panic I grabbed my stun gun and hecktickly started to look around for cover.

One of the attackers noticed me and screamed while aiming his gun, paint started to fly in my direction and I fired my stun gun at the same time while covering my face and pressed the trigger.

I heard screaming and the sound of the stun guns charge going off.

After that a sound similar to something melting was heard.

I finally dared to look and saw my attacker literally melting into the ground, gun abandoned where he stood.

I had all eyes at me and only a few moments before another scream erupted and this time all the weapons started to fire at me, naturally I started to run to where I believed the exit to be.

I through shear luck didn't get lost and recognized the door, sadly it was closed however I was confident, and scared.

With full speed I ran past the guards and ramed the gate shoulder first aiming close to the locks, and to my satisfaction it gave in and was sailing to the ground with me on top.

I got back up and ran, faster and farther with my adrenalin high. The door on top of the tunnel was ripped asided as I charged tracing our footsteps. The camp in front of the building ignored.

I quickly got back up and ran up the stairs and back to the base, ignoring the camp and its resistance completely. Only when the door was locked behind me and I slowly slid to the ground I allowed myself to breathe.

* * *

"What in the name of the damn great Zapfish happend, can someone explain that to me in fine detail." The queen raged after the battle was over and the attackers were captured or dealt with.

None of the guards really wanted to deal with that and so a unfortunate Hina was pushed forward to explain the situation.

"M-My queen?" she asked shily and the queens rage filled face was turned towards her."A-Allow me to explain what happened."

Seeing Hinas stuttering fearful face evaporated some of her rage, she would never admit but she was protective of that girl."Speak." she said simply.

"As we left the palace a charger was fired at us." she started to explain,"It hit the human right in the face and it collapsed, fearing that it died I panicked, then your guards ran out and the fire fight started. The it stood back up and started to defend itself by..." she looked at the molten puddle that was struggling to take form again.

"It's ok Hina, you did the best that you could." The queen said patting her head and turning her head away. "Go inside for now, we will discuss what to do later."

"I-I am so sorry my queen." Hina started apologizing.

"You have nothing to apologize for Hina, no go inside." the queen urged and pointed one of her guards to go with her.

She waited until the door after Hina was closed, she hated to admit how much of a influence that girl had on her."Now that that is out of the way... Report!" she said turning to the second in command.

"The attackers numbered in 10 to 12 armed octosoldires, military grade equipment and training, no designation for now but I want to start a full investigation and interrogation of the prisoners." the Saluting Octoling said.

"Do it, look for any connections to the council, what happened to that 'Human' as Hina likes to call it?"

"It was presumed to be dead or unconscious after getting hit with the charger and many shots of follow up ink, however it got backup and after a short moment of confusion engaged on of the attackers with unknown weaponry,... we are still not sure what to make to the results." The octoling said glancing at the results fearfully.

"What is that supposed to mean, is he splated or not?" The queen asked, she didn't want to deal with any kind of beating around the brush right now.

"He is splattered, we think. However we believe the attackers had a respawn beacon close by. The thing is that even though he was clearly splatter, it seems like he fails to form again, as if his brain is not properly cooperating with the rest of his mass."

"What you are telling me makes it sound like that creature has a gun that somehow can kill you without triggering the respawn beacon and can disrupt our natural ability to flow back together, and I don't like that." The Queen summarized.

"None of us do mam, but so far this is the only explanation." The idea of something like that scared the queen, because she just spend the entire morning with that creature in a room and it just could have killed her whenever it wanted to, however she had to give Hina props, she was definitely right when she told her that this creature had many things invaluable to them, now it was a question of how to get them.


	4. Chapter 4

After my adrenaline finally was at bearable levels again, I looked myself up and down.

I was covered in more pink then… I really couldn't think of a proper comparison right now, there was a lot of pink, considering my face had yet to melt of I suspected that whatever body exploding effects that stuff had on them didn't have the same one on me.

Understandable since we had a vastly different biology, frankly I didn't want to think of any bacterial consequences for now, if they where I couldn't do much anyway.

At first I tried to distract myself with checking on the samples I collected the previous day.

The results so far where good, nothing that would outright murder me in a few days as far as the machines could tell at least, most other results where chemistry centered and I simply couldn't get anything useful out of them.

I threw some of that paint into analyzers as well and collected most of it before hermetically sealing my clothes away, let the scientists deal with stuff like that. I now needed a long shower.

After I was done I started up my computer, the servers had saved hundreds of petabytes of information, shouldn't be to hard to find things about cephalopods.

After about five more hours of research I had a few solid theories and explanations. One it was very possible for them to evolve at such a rapid pace thanks to something called RNA Editing that, something that apparently was very unstable henc why most other species got rid of it, but in return allowed very rapid and drastic evolution.

Next thing I found out is how extrem the difference between octopodes, apparently that was the correct plural, in their gender variety was,my suspicion that the upright walking ones where females was strenged as they seemed to generally be taller and stronger.

This could also explain what that confrontation was all about, maybe some form of civil war between males and females? Possible, however for all I know this could be way more complicated and may or may not involve me.

Also another interesting fact was that apparently they have their brain scattered throughout their whole body, meaning that the guy I fried very likely has brain damage now, something I didn't feel good about at all and tried to not think about too much.

I tried to think of something else to do however nothing came to mind and the confrontation played out in my head again. If those guys had real weapons I would be dead right now, heck, those are real weapons, only for them and luckily not for me.

I went to the lobby again and started to prepare myself, I would probably get a visit soon.

I took a set of spare gear and stun guns with chargers, I doubt I could get myself to use them again considering I have no idea of the effects but I also doubted that I could leave without one now.

With a timing that couldn't be more perfect there was knocking at the door, I only had basic stuff on me and didn't put on a mask or sweater but I did hefter the stun gun and a few replacement batteries on my belt. I also locked the spares away.

Well, time to see what was knocking.

* * *

"So, do you have a plan?" the Queen asked Hina who by now has calmed down a bit.

"I, think I do your highness." Hina said nervously.

"You think?"

"The biggest problem here is communication, I can't just go and properly explain the situation, it probably is confused at best and scared at worst." Hina explained.

"And something that is scared might lash out, wonderful." The queen added.

"Correct, however I do have a idea that might work in calming it down, apparently Humans used to give eachother plants as gifts, I think with that gesture I might be able to get something going or at least calm it down enough to not attack outright." Hina explained showing of pictures of humans giving each other various colorful flowers.

"And let me guess, you want to do that alone and unarmed." the queen finished the thought.

Hina only nooded meekly.

"The camp that you set up will probably still in chaos at the sudden disappearance. You will not go alone." The queen said with finality,"You will be accompanied by a force of ten and if they deem the creature as a danger and find that you are no longer able to communicate with it peacefully they will act, same goes if it attacks you in any way." Hina wanted to argue but was promptly interrupted."This is not debatable, they will keep distance however only one super jump distance is tolerated." she sighed,"Hina you might not even acknowledge it but we need you alive and well, with we I mean all Octerians your contributions are grand, a great amount of all our power came from your expeditions, as limited as they where, I plan to lift you limitations and I can't do that if you no longer are alive to use your freedom... Just don't do anything stupid."

"I… Yes my Queen." Hina said, unable to say more.

She made her preparations, and met with the guards assigned to her.

They reached the camp without trouble but inside the camp things got a bit complicated when her guards declared this a military operation and that they now had full authority, questions about on whose orders and who authorized things were generally answered with 'do what we say or jump into the water'.

Hina tried to play medicator between the team and the guards, while she usually didn't interact with them much they still have shown her nothing but respect and in Hinas eyes didn't deserve such harsh treatment.

That said, she needed to prepare, the sooner she establishes peace the better as not acting at all might be seen as a sign of guilt, or acting to quickly could as well.

Who was she kidding, she had no idea if this worked, for all she knew this would just end up insulting it.

That said she always was a Octarian of actions and so far mosts things had worked.

After she had plants similar to those on the pictures she went to the dig site and subsequently the building. The guards right behind her. When she tried to argue with them to not be visible they argued that the more she complained the closer they would stand to her.

Rude, but it filled her with some pride that the queen valued her this much.

With all the confidence she could muster she knocked, the guards a good distance away, weapons drawn. Would those even do anything? She asked herself this way too late, as the door opened revealing the Human, it didn't have as much clothes on as last time, however it was very clear that it was on the edge as it was partly hidden by the door and its weapon visibly displayed on its belt, the weapon that somehow could ignore the respawn beacons.

They had one with them on most expeditions, knowing that it could be completely useless didn't help her nerves.

She stretched her hand with the plants towards the Human and said,"Eh, sorry for the shot in the face?" she was pretty sure that one of the guards slipped behind her.

They stared at each other for a few moments, the human just blinking at her sheepishly with its posure completely lush.

Then it fell flat on its back and started laughing so badly that Hina felt as if the ground shock, she had no idea why but she honestly prefered that over all the other possible scenarios she could think of.

After it finally claimed itself down enough to stand it grabbed the plants and went back inside.

However the door it left open.

Hina stood before the open door unsure what to do, she could see a few things from outside but only in a narrow angle, she dared to take a few steps forward.

The inside didn't look as alien as she imagined, it was well lit, and somewhat cozy, with carpets, furniture, TV and everything.

The Human was not in sight until another door opened and it stepped out walking to the couch and switching on the TV before beconinging them.

They carefully walked over to him completely on the edge.

Suddenly music started to fill the room and her escorts nearly shot the radio it came from.

The human said something pointed at them and then and then at the couch where he placed 3… remotes?

The TV was switched on and images she didn't understand flashed by.

After a while the screen was split into four and each one of them had a car on it, it was a racing game.

The human want to play a racing game with them…0

Hina was… unsure what to think of that.

Again the human pointed at them and then at the gaming pads.

In the end her and two guards played while switching out with the others, it was more of a fight between the octolings present as the Human beat them down and even started rounding them.

The music also got switched from time to time, Hina really wanted to know what the Lyrics ment but right now she really was happy that the human seemed to cooperate with them.

* * *

I needed that, some music, a game, and a few people to chill with, the last few days I was on the edge all the time. I didn't even notice it but being basically stranded alone can do hell to one's mind, the supposed gunfight didn't help. But when Octogirl showed up with flowers in front of my door is simply cracked.

It was just too much and I broke down into laughter, I decided to just not care for the rest of the day. The company was nice, they talked a bit among each other. Especially the, what I assumed to be guards.

Although the music was chilly and I kept it quiet at the start that was just not my style so halfway through the race I just stopped turned to the radio and switched to something harder and louder.

My guests seemed to pump it as far as I could see. They seemed to really get into it, some even dancing, also they started to drive really aggressively… aaaaand they just knocked my car of the road while I wasn't there.

Oh its so on.

* * *

Far away in the hall of collective, the name give to the council meeting place they have assembled.

As always the 'Queen' was not invited, they always found ways to politely explain why, in truth they all couldn't stand her.

Her quick and violent takeover was unexpected and by all accounts irrational. Retvi, now Queen Retvi, used to be a general, one of the few octolings that in the eyes of the previous King could bury her aggression far enough to not only do sound tactical decisions but make good ones at that.

Then she just one day stormed the palace and declared herself queen and forced the crowning, worse even was that she somehow managed to get the support of most of the military giving her enough power that fighting her out of office was no longer a option.

That said they did the best they could to undermine her power, hoping that when Octavio came back he would take back the crown.

However this time she had something coming for them as she literally smashed the door open.

"Greetings dear councill, how nice of you to respect my personal time and not invite me, again." normal the council would stand up with the entering of the monarch, no one did, not that the queen cared as she just seated herself in on the monarchs place.

"I am sure you are all wondering why someone so important as I would lower herself to your presence." angry grumbling followed at the obvious jab at their usual excuses.

"But as I have no doubt all of you know there has been a attack not to long ago." Quiet, only scare reactions."And best of all, some of the attackers, all of them trained soldiers of the octerian empire, have claimed that the attack happened on the authority of the council."

"A desperate accusation, what does that have to do with anything?" one in the back row said.

"As baseless as it is, the problem is that those soldiers do not fit the profile of traitors at all, strange, normally one can tell if someone is about to go rough that person usually get set on a watch list, we have psychologists trained for things like that after all." the queen counterd.

"What are you saying, that you want to declare the whole council guilty?" at that most members tensed up ready to signal their private security and backup plans.

"Oh, no I am here to simply make you aware that there might be a traitor in this room, and as such I would like to declare a new law. From this day on all military actions are only to be carried out if the ruling monarch approved them. If actions are carried out without the monarchs direct approval they are treason."

As she finished the room was in a hellish uproar."You have no right!","You can't do that!","This would need the council's approval!"

"Silence!" She shouted. "I agree with you, normally I would have no right to pass a law of this magnitude,... with the exception of the emergency state being called in." dead silence was spread in the room. "As you all know today a attack happened that was very likely aimed at me, a attack on the ruling monarch is viewed as a direct threat to the country and as such from today onwards I am calling in the emergency state for the for this attack appropriate time of six months. After those are over you can go and vote the law away if you so wish." With that she stood up and left the room as it was still shocked to silence.

Hina now had more than enough time, the queen hoped she would make it count, for now she had preparations to plan.

After all there was much to do with that absolute power she just gave herself.


	5. Chapter 5

Absolute power her tentacles, the queen was regretting her decision more and more with every document she had to sign.

The last three months have been hell as the councill found a way to take her power and sowe it up her ink sack by making her go through every. Documented. Action. committed by the military.

Everything, starting from the most petty theft, now had to pass her desk or, by her own words was declared treason, Queen Retvi really hoped that Hina was faring better and this whole thing paid of.

"My Queen?" came the meek voice from her side as her assistant walked in with another stack of paper, she could see how he pited her and it only made the Queen more frustrated. "I do bring good news my Queen." he said hasty as he saw her mood lowering.

"What about this stack of paper could possibly be good news?" The queen asked him.

"I have made a appointment for you with Hina, she asked for a extended audience." he explained. "Per your orders I have put everything on hold for it."

"Excellent." the Queen was already in a better mood. If Hina asked for that audience then she probably brought good news.

"When?" the Queen asked.

"In a few minutes actually, she and her… companion are already here."

"Perfect." The Queen stood up and started her march towards the throne room.

There as expected the Human and Hina already awaited her.

"Greeting Queen, honor to you." the Human said, copying the old traditional greeting.

"Honor to the Octarians." The queen answered playing along. "I see you better with our language now."

"I am, the hardest part was getting used to the new sounds."

"I would argue that the hardest part was your sense of humor." Hina commented.

"Oh, please it was hardly THAT bad." The human shot back.

"You tried to kill one of the guards!" Hina looked at him with a twitching eye.

"How was I supposed to know that the one thing that is the most essential to life is somehow harmful to your kind?" he argued back.

"Wait what?" The Queen could only ask shocked.

"Well, if you want the full story..." Hina started.

* * *

Hina and the Guards were looking for the Human, he let the door open by now allowing them to run around the rest of the facility. Many of the doors were closed of to them and some of them he strictly told them to never enter.

They chose to not test the boundaries of his patience. That said they optet to explore a bit on their own as they didn't find him in the main entrance this time.

"This place is insane!" the guard leading said. "I mean we explored so much and there are still so many closed doors."

"It was made to store the acumalitve knowladge AND feed and house around 50000 of his kind, have you seen how much he eats?" Hina commented. "I suspect that most of the rooms closed are storages of some kind."

"That only makes it even more insane." the guard said. "Also, where is our avatar of madness?" she asked referring to the human.

"It's not that bad." Hina said as they entered the room. What purpose the room had they couldn't even guess. It just had a massive amount of clear water in the center.

Before they could start voicing their minds they heard a sound and watched in horror as the Human jumped into the water wearing little to no protective gear.

They could do nothing and waited for what they believed to be the inevitable.

Only that a few moments later he again rose up from the water making various sounds.

"What, I don't, what?" the guard just said, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

"Well, there are creatures that don't get harmed by water." Hina commented looking at the tanks of some of the guards that were filled with water, something that was very dangerous and deeply frowned upon, but something the operation leader insisted upon as a last resort should the human prove hostile.

Looking back at the cheerfully swimming human Hina deduced that it would probably be even less effective than their ink.

He finally noticed them and had this grin on his face, one that Hina would learn to dread.

Without any warning he splashed water at them.

Frantically the trained guards scattered, sadly their usual response was disrupted by Hina who somehow collided with all of them at once.

In the end from the expected wave of death just a few splashes hit them, it stung a lot but didn't splat them. They did have a respawn beacon nearby for emergencies. It still scared the ink out of them, literally in some cases as the guards tried to scatter ink in the panic.

During all that the human just was splashing around in the pool while laughing at their misfortune.

The guard that she was talking with a moment ago didn't like that at all.

To show her displeasure she started shooting him, she had a ink tank and while she knew that it wasn't any harm to the human he still found great fun in doging her shots and shooting water back at her.

Hina suspected that he probably didn't even know that he was attempting to kill her.

"What are you incompetent tentacle suckers doing!" a high pitched voice came from behind her and she quickly stepped aside as the team leader came in.

"Playing?" The human said without much thought.

"Playing!?" She shouted."YOU BOTH WILL STAND AT ATTENTION THIS INSTANT!" Surprisingly the human did as well.

What followed was a loud verbal beatdown while the guard stood straight at attention and was doing her best to look straight forward the human was rubbing the back of his head in honest confusion.

"Human." Hina interrupted earning herself a glare from the team leader. "Look." she said pulling of her gloves and going closer to the water.

She knew the pain was coming but she still flinched badly when she stuck a finger inside the water.

Surprising herself she actually held out a few seconds before she pulled it back out again.

As she looked back on her finger it was barely recognizable, pieces where missing, her nail was gone and it only was halve the actual size that it was.

She didn't leave it in for too long so it already started to regenerate back the missing part.

As she turned around to see the horrified faces of the guards. But the human one stood out, a expression of pure shock and confusion was visible.

A few days later the guards all have various little gifts and Hina found that the large water room was sealed shut and the human refrained from drinking in their presence.

* * *

"You didn't need to tell it like that." the human said with a grumpy voice. "Also I said I was sorry!"

"That I admit is true, however what about the fact that you admitted eating some of our kind?!" Hina shouted back.

"Wait, I, What?" The queen already had trouble following as Hina started to tell another story.

* * *

"Please this way." The old museums director said hurriedly. "Oh I can't tell you how excited I am!"

"I can imagine." The human said as they walked around the darkened halls."It's a shame I can't see the gallery in full light."

"Yes, but what can you do, power needs to be saved." he replied.

The human remained quite, Hina had yet to inform it about the whole situation with the power shortage but by now he probably suspected something.

"At least there is a silver lining." Hina said."We get to know first hand accounts on many famounse relics." It was interesting to see pieces of the past explained in detail, most things they guessed right as to how it works and what it was for.

Some more strange ones they got completely wrong. For example they found strage rooms with many pipes connected to it, apparently it was not a transportation hub but a 'Bathroom' where others of his kind liked to wash their bodies with water.

A morbid thought for most of them but it made sense with the resistance the humans had.

"I do wonder myself what the oldest surviving piece of literature is." The human commented.

They reached the main room and the director switched on the lights illuminating the room. There on a podest it was, it was a large thing for a octarian, not as large as the one she was gifted but still of considerable size.

"There are many theories running around as to what it truly is." the old squid explained. "The pictures are not helping much, as many as there are."

The human approached the glass and pressed his hand against the glass with a surprised expression.

"So, what is it, do not drag it out please, I might just get a heart attack." the director added jokingly.

"It's a cooking manual." He said quietly. "A cooking manual..." he said quietly.

He was greeted with a long silence before Hina finally spoke up."A cooking manual? Like, for food?"

"Yes, traditional japanese food to be exact, probably with lots of fish." he said.

"But… there are pictures of Octarians in there!" Hina shouted. "This better not be one of your jokes. " Hina warned him with a twitch in her eye already having developed a deep hatred against human humor.

"Honestly, I wish it was." he said with a smile. "Because it is the most brilliant irony I have seen in awhile."

"E-E-Excuse me..." the Old Octarina stuttered out. "But some of the pictures have been used as fashion, are you absolutely sure that this is what you think it is."

"I like to think I can read my own language, so yes." the Human affirmed. "Also I would like to correct you, those are not octarians but your ancestors, the Octopi. And yes we did eat those, keep in mind that we are talking about a time when you kind wasn't able to speak much less walk on land."

"I… how… WHAT?!" Hina said as the poor director fainted.

* * *

"Thinking back it does make sense actually." the human said. "Also stop referring to me as 'human' please, I have a name."

"To bad, you are the human, deal with it." Hina shot back. "And what makes sense?"

"That it's a cooking manual. Normally those are made out of tougher stuff so that they don't get damaged by the various things you find in the kitchen."

"That... makes sense actually." Hina admitted while the queen just looked back and forth between them with confusion plainly written on her face.

"Oh come on now, you guys hardly where the best guests." he said looking at her disapprovingly. "Or do I need to remind you how one of you got stuck in the toilet?"

Now it was Hina's turn to blush and try looking for excuses.

"What? Where is that story telling enthusiasm gone, you big mature Octoling, you had no trouble talking just a few moments ago." the Human said bowing down and looking at Hina from above literally staring her down as she did her best to avoid his gaze."No? Nothing? Let me then!"

* * *

"Why the hell would she do that?!" I shouted at them.

"Well, normally pipes are used to travel so maybe she thought that it led somewhere." Hina explained carefully while she watched me work with the pipes.

"So someone thought that it was smart to go down a pipe while not knowing where it led to." I asked her trying to calm myself.

"Yes..." she said carefully.

"Well, did you ever consider that the pipe might, just maybe, have even the slightest possibility TO LEAD TO A PURIFICATION PLANT!" I shouted while giving the pipe a last push to knock it out of its holder. As it did the insides finally spilled out those being a Octoling.

She was shaking badly and whimpering a bit, I probably broke about 500 psychology rules or something similar but right now I couldn't get myself to care as I lifted her up with a hand and threw her into a towel.

The next thing I knew the alarm started to blare loudly with a automated message playing. "Warning. Leak in the sewage systems. Authorised personnel please go to the designated area immediately!"

"No really?!" I shouted back in rage. "I thought me ripping out a pipe was pretty obvious!"

"Is there someone else here?" Hina asked looking around in panic not expecting the sudden voice and the human just goarned.

* * *

"The alarm still goes off at random times." The human said while shaking his head in his hands.

"Weeeeelllll, we did help you with the facility to make it up to you." Hina said looking at him with a uneasy smile.

"That is true I suppose." he said with a sigh.

"Ok, I don't know what just happened but the two you you need some marriage counseling by the sound of it." the queen just said.

The Human just broke out into a fit of laughter while Hina stammered around with her whole face yellow.

After they all calmed down a bit the queen said. "But seriously, you guys sounded like you had a lot of fun."

"We did." the he answered. "It was also very interesting to see some of you customs and traditions."

"Although what was that with you eating our ancestors?" The queen asked now having properly analyzed the spoken words.

"In some countries the traditional seafood definitely did have octopy in it." he admitted nervously. "However that is not the thing that we need to talk about right now, is it." with the last two words he turned to Hina.

"Yes lets. My queen during our cultural exchange a topic the inklings came up and that eventually led to..."

"Cultural exchange?" the human aske her.

"Us talking about Octarians and Humans." Hina clarified and the Human noted the word down in a notebook he pulled from his bag. "Anyway, yes we talked about the power problem." The queen didn't like the sound of that also she was hoping she could talk about that with the human herself before anything.

"To make a long story short I am still having trouble believing how your species is surviving like this and still lacks a proper generator." the human said. "That and apparently the other race that stole your only reliable source of power, which is a gigantic electric eel apparently, and are using it to power what are essentially multiple cities."

"That is correct in a big overview yes." The Queen said carefully.

"Well I don't believe a damn word of it!" The Human shouted out. "This sounds like the fever dream of some brain tumor who slowly is drifting into madness!" he slipped over into his own language in the middle of that and Hina simply translated into 'madness'.

"Why exactly are you ranting about our species history?" the Queen asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because you're species apparently copied our technology that we made without the one basic thing that keeps the whole thing running." he said looking at the Queen in a way that made her uncomfortable, it could be because of the strange small eyes.

"Well why don't you share this obvious thing then with us?" she straight out suggested.

"I would love to." he said with a smile while rubbing his hands, during that the Queen lost her political mast for a moment and genuinely smiled. "However I first would like to meet your people."

The Queen's face immediately fell."What?" she asked carefully.

"I want to show me your people. I want to see how you live, I want to see the things you are most proud of, I want to see the things you're most ashamed of, I want to see what you love, I want to see what you hate, I want to see what you will do with what I can give you." The humans said in a speech like fashion.

The Queen looked at him from her throne with narrowed eyes, she had a few ways she could go about this. She doubted threatening him would work in her favour nor did she have anything to pressure him, she looked at Hina who understood the unasked question and nodded at her queen. Fine, she would play along and play the pity card then. "Very well. A ture it is. I hope you don't mind if we start right away." she said smiling at him. She already was forming a plan in her head.

A few minutes later the Queen stepped out of the place with Hina and the Human waiting for her. She had to guards with her, while she didn't think a attack would happen with this being such a random thing one could never be careful enough.

"...I still don't really understand." Hina said to the human, however the queen didn't understand it as it was spoken in the his language.

"It's a matter of perspective Hina. I can't and I won't until I have seen something I want to see. However I think now is not the time to talk about this." For the last sentence he switched to Octarian again and turned to the queen. "I assume we are ready?"

"Yes, let's." The queen said as they started the trip. "You want me to convince you that we deserve the technology correct?"

"Correct." he answered shortly.

"What I am interested in is why." the queen asked. "You clearly by now that we need it dearly, and you would only benefit from our cooperation, so why not just play the part?"

"Because if I did give it to you carelessly I could end up hurting myself, you and the rest of the world more than you probably can imagine." he answered flatly.

The queen just looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment before asking. "I am curious, you seem to be speaking from experience."

He looked at her with a look the queen had a hard time to read, when he spoke up again his voice sounded… regretful. "We humans had 7 big land masses that we called continents, one of those was larger than any map your people have shown me so far." he explained. "After a war there only where 6 left habitable."

The queen slowly looked away after the explanation a lump in her throat forming. "Dose that have to a connection to why your people are no longer around?" in the background Hina was beating herself up for not asking the question herself.

"No." he then let out a short laugh. "You know it's funny. The majority of my species thought that we would die because either greed or our own stupidity, in the end it was something that we actually had no control over."

"That sounds like a bad assumption to make, and from my perspective makes your people look quite mad." the queen remarked.

"Your point?" he asked looking back at her with a wide smile.

"Ok, no stop." Hina said stepping in between them. "This is going into bad jokes territory that should not be made in the presence of royalty."

"Spoilsport." the human said with a frown

"I, what?" the queen asked with one eye twitching in confusion.

"His sense of humor is so bad it should be weaponized." Hina said desperately. "Please let's just show him what you wanted to, I will explain later your highness."

"Very well." The queen said carefully making a mental note to ask Hina exactly what this is all about. "Anyway, we reached out first destination, welcome to the main living area of octopolis." Before them a stairway stretched down into what could only be described as a slum. Buildings made out of everything one could find, metal, coral pieces, things that the human couldn't even identify, the only thing all of the things had in common that it was very colorful. And no matter where he looked it was alive. Octarians sitting around a fire warming what he assumed to be their food, people playing music and dancing. It was a strange thing to look at. "Come, allow me to show you around." The Queen said as she and her guards started walking again.

It was awkward how everything was so small, the stairs needed to be walked carefully so that he didn't trip and more than often he needed to duck to not hit his head.

"As you can see despite us lacking power right now the people still make the best of their time and thanks to the trade deals we have with the Salmons we are able to make just enough food so that hunger is not a problem, yet." she added. "Inspiring, isn't it? That even in bad times people still smile and laugh together."

"That is true, however I doubt that this is what you want to show me." the he answered while looking around.

"Correct." The queen said. "What I want to show you is this." and she pointed at the big building. In comparison to the rest of the place it looked near pristine. Solid walls, visible electronic, large tanks, it looked nearly modern.

A sigh in front of it read 'Health center'.

"A hospital?" he asked himself quietly.

"This is one of the last places with unrestricted power access after all." The queen commented. "Now let's not waste any more time."

* * *

As we entered the hospital the first problem was, again, my height. I had to duck under the door and the ceiling was sadly just a tiny bit to low for me.

It was strangely familiar in a weird way. I recognized most things like they used to be in a normal human one. The reception desk, the long line in front of it, the beds with people who had conditions I couldn't identify.

I promptly put my gas mask back on, better not take unnecessary risks with unknown biology.

As we walked around the feeling of familiarity only stenged, I was introduced to some of the staff, the equipment, some of the patients. Speaking with some of them was harder because of dialect or fast speakers, it made me realize how slowly the queen and Hina spoke to me.

One theme was all around us. Mainly that all of them needed electricity in some form or another. I understood now, the queen was trying to get my tear ducts to open and feel sympathy.

Not bad, it may even work but lets see what else she has in store.

The doctors gave me long explanation on the equipment and my questions and mistranslations were addressed mostly by Hina. The topic most interesting to me was the 'regenerators' as they called them, however I was not sure on the word as Hina was very much struggling with the translations and I was worse with Octarian then she was in English.

Their biology was a very interesting topic in general seeing as they are able to shapeshift in some way, are extremely light and als their body seems to be semi liquid. Something that this 'regenerator' or 'restorer' was able to take advantage of and take all their cells and force them back into one, basicly restoring them.

Hina didn't fully understand why the concept was disturbing to me but I let it drop choosing to talk about about concept existential dread later.

After a while we left the hospital again. As we walked through the living areas Hina said something to the Queen to quickly for me to understand but it had the word visit in it I think. The queen nodded and Hina left us for a while. I was a bit worried as I now lacked a translator but hopefully the queen would be patient with me.

We went back to the palace to a meeting of some sort, to talk to someone important. I suspected some historian or scientist.

We reached the Palace a new sight greeted me, mainly that of big metal plated fish. Honestly the only thing that pointed at them being fish at the time was the fins, it was about my height and on its head was something that looked like a opening for paint artillery, must have looked really scary for the Octarians as most of them made a wide circle around this strange entourage.

"May I introduce you to our trader partners, the Salmons." the queen said pointing at the convoy. from the middle of it one of them came out and approached the queen with what I can only assume is a smile.

"Queen Retvi!" it said with what I assume to be joy. "It is good to see you again." it then placed its fins on the queens head and clapped them twice, the queen in turn did the same but 3 times. "Hoho, why tree times dear queen, what is the ocasion?" he asked her.

"Because I have a special guest alongside me." she said pointing at me. "He is not used to our customs or culture, as such I ask you to be mindful of him not returning or understanding certain things." good, I actually got worried for a second I needed to understand whatever greeting they just did.

"Ah a new face!" he said approaching me, during that I was trying to find a funny way to remind him that he can't see my face because of my gas mask. "Greetings, I hope you have been a great company to the queen."

"I do like to think that I am a funny person." I replied.

"That is good, humor is something she definitely needs from time to time." he said smiling at her over his shoulder to which she only rolled her eyes, it was still very surprising how similar much of the mannerism was, I suspect that the cause of that was that they basically lived what was the leftovers of our culture. "Now, as pleasant as this is, I am here on official business. I hope the goods are ready as always."

"They are, please follow me." the queen said and then snipped her fingers, instantly marks appeared on the ground that glowed for a while. Then out of nowhere 4 octolings crashed into the ground into puddles before quickly reforming and taking a simple marching formation.

As one our groupe waked towards its destination while I was walking next to the queen, I wonder if that had any significance to them.

As I checked my watch I found that it actually was getting late, strangely it didn't feel like it, the light was still the same when I arrived. As I looked up I found the reason. I completely forgot that I actually wasn't on the surface and as such it took my by surprise to see huge spotlights mounted on the ceiling. Didn't they have power problems? Also what was securing them those huge things?

I decided to not devel on too much on that. We reached our goal as two of the guards went up to one of 6 massive crates and opened one of them. "Six full crates, just as promised ambassador." the Queen said and the ambassador immediately went inside and started inspecting the contents. Looking inside I found materials, bottled substances I couldn't identify but above all else stood a large amount of what I recognized as weaponry.

I really questioned what purpose showing this to me had.

"Yes, everything seem to be in perfect order..." The ambassador talked more to himself then to us as he checked all the contents, going around with his list from box to box. After he was done he came back to us and said. "I already signaled my man to pull the crates on land, if you would be so kind to return the favour your highness?"

"Of course." with that she pulled out a walkie talkie and spoke into it in quick and snappy octarian, a bit to fast for me to understand properly.

From the distance the strangest things flew towards us, the only way I could describe them was as flying noodles, after a closer look I noticed that it actually was flying tentacles with propeller helmets, which made it even ridiculous looking. The only way I could explain this was that they had so little wight that even this tiny amount of lift was enough for flight.

They attached themselves with suction cups to the containers and after a brief moment they actually achieved lift of and carried them away. For a moment I started doubting if the laws of physics still worked properly, because the only other explanation was that somehow earth's gravity was significantly lower than what I remember it to be. I gave it a few experimental jumps and I found that I was still as heavy as I remember. The queen only looked at me confused.

Without many more words we walked we started walking again, this time going lower and lower until we reached water. It was a underground bay with a few ships here and there, or at least I suspected they were ships by their shape, they had nothing on any kind of human ships I remember, historical or otherwise.

At the shore I again saw those hulking Salmon beast as they had chains attached to them as they pulled containers out of the water, they were very similar to those that just few away.

They pulled out twelve in total and as soon as all of them where on land the inspection started. The octarians opened every single box, I expected somewhat of a equal exchange but to my surprise most of the things that they opened up where food.

I recognized many kinds of fish, seagrass and many other things.

Immediately it was clear that this was a very bad trade, hard materials and weaponry traded for food, and not even that much. The Octarians where giving those containers practically away for nothing judging by the amount of people they needed to feed. I was no expert and had no close up look on how they worked, but this was in no way or form sustainable.

After they checked all the contents really thoroughly they gave their ok to the queen who then barked more orders. Instantly another large flock of the flying tentacles appeared and again carried of the containers.

"As pleasant as this Quen Retvi, the air is drying up my scales, and I am no longer the youngest fish in the water." the ambassador said again doing the strange greeting which the queen returned. After that the Salmons left.

The Queen beckoned me to follow her again and we started walking back to the place, I was curious what she would show me next, I hoped that I still would be ok without my tiny translator buddy. Speaking of which I wondered where she was.

* * *

Hina was happy, she wasn't able to visit her uncle since the assignment started. She wasn't even able to properly explain to him what she was doing.

Filled with excitement she knocked at the door. "Yes? Who is this?" came the soft voice from the inside.

"It's your favourite niece!" she shouted out.

"Hina?" the sound of hurried footsteps and the door was ripped open. "Hina!" the old Octarian who opened the door used two tentacles to hug his niece as strong as he could.

"Uncle!" Hina shouted and returned the hug.

"Come in, come in." the old octarian said after a while and practically dragged her in. "It has been so long. Where were you?"

"I'm fine, I have been busy with this really big project, sorry I wasn't able to properly talk to you." Hina explained shily.

"You and your important government stuff." he said while preparing some tea. "Can you talk about it or is this one of those secret ones?"

"I… am actually not sure." Hina admite after thinking about it for a while, she was of course still too tall for the table and chair since she became a Octoling however she wouldn't dare to complain about a single thing, even if he always made her tea to sweet still making it like when she just had two tentacles.

"Well, then let's not speak about it." he said sitting down in front of her. "What have you been doing that you can tell me about."

"Well, I made a new friend, I think..."

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow before asking. "How can someone be your 'kinda' friend?"

"Well, I am not sure if he sees me as a friend, you see it's actually about the thing I do for the queen, you know, it will probably have huge impacts in the future." she explained.

"How big of a impact are we talking about here?"

"I am honestly not sure myself."

Anything else they tried to talk about was interrupted by someone shouting from the outside.

"Food delivery!" Quickly both of them shoot up and left the house, they weren't alone as the whole neighborhood quickly left as well. "Food delivery! Come and get it!" Came the shout form a Octoling as it was flying in on a huge container.

"The next delivery is here, quickly, lets get it." Her uncle said as he rushed to the designated landing spaces. Those food deliveries where a blessing for the people. while octarians didn't have much body mass and as a result didn't eat much however the food they had right now was still very little.

"Careful, not showing, everybody gets some. Move it you already got one. Hey, I saw that!" The Octoling soldiers made sure everything was orderly and that everybody got one.

Hina watched the whole thing from the side with sadness in her eyes, she really hoped that she would be able to help her uncle, she wasn't someone pure hearted who wanted to help the people, not after what she had to deal with growing up, but if she just could help her uncle she would be happy.

* * *

Meanwhile up top at the palace the queen and the human watched, it was unnerving to the queen that she wasn't able to see his face since they entered the hospital because of the mask, Hina, via one of her many letters and reports confirmed that they had very similar facial reactions like Octolings and she would have loved to at least get a hint what her actions where doing.

They were observing as the food was given out among the masses.

The queen hoped that her plan worked, she wanted hook him with sympathy and pity. Show him how bad the times where but that she was doing everything to keep her people alive.

"You are ruining your empire." he said after a few moments. The queen was already cursing inwardly at herself. "Those trades will sooner or later drive you to bankruptcy, not only that but your people are incapable of making any kind of proper trade of for the food you are buying. All that you have you dearly need to survive, your whole people live and die with the electricity you have."

The queen vinced at the full explanation, she was curious as to how she got some of those details but she sadly had to agree to most of it. "Yes, I hope you see now how desperately need it."

"I do see it, however I have a few questions." he said still fixated at the different districts, each one getting a container. "First, what will you do with the Inklings?"

"It depends on them. If they try to steal this from us, I will fight." No point in hiding that.

"Understandable, my last question then." he stood up and walked towards the queen then going down so that he could look her in the eyes and took off his mask. "If I help you with this will you in return help me?" he quickly interrupted her as she opened her mouth to speak. "I don't want any political promises or thoughtless actions, right now I need you to understand that my people are facing a problem worse than yours, I am with very high possibility the last of my kind, the last who is capable of doing anything at least. What I want from you is that in return for helping your people, you will help mine as if they were your own and even if I should die somehow you will take care and try to help them as if they were your own."

The queen looked him in the eyes, it was still strange those small eyes where like steel drilling into her own. Nevertheless she returned the look with the same steel. "I swear it by my people."

"Then we have a deal." he said standing up and look back to the district. "Tomorrow we will start with the planning and building of the probably first ever generator of your people."

"A what now?" the queen asked carefully.

"It's a human machine that generates electricity." he explained. "This empire of yours has a good amount of workers, we will need them if we are to change something." the human said with a smile on his face, plans already forming in his head.

"Thank you human, you don't know how much this means to me." the queen said allowing herself a moment to smile.

"Call me David." he said smiling broadly at her.


	6. Chapter 6

'I wonder, where did things go so horribly… wrong? strange? Not even sure what to call this.'

'This' being the fact that I was holding two Octolings who tried to murder me down with both hands. The didn't pose any threat to me, being human and all that, but by the end of this, I would have several ink-contaminated clothes and pieces of gear.

* * *

It started fairly normal with Hina and I talking about all kinds of things, Physics right now to be exact to start planning of the generator, but we were alone. That is somewhat strange as normally she always had a few guards with her.

Them simply being there to guard us or maybe having some ulterior motive is not something I cared too much about as long as they didn't do something really dumb like the toilet incident.

But this time no guards and I didn't believe for a moment that it was supposed to be like that.

I decided to ask and Hina only shrugged in response, something she picked up from me.

We continued our work until the guards came back, to be exact the previous ones came back.

"Is something wrong?" I asked them carefully.

"Probably nothing." Inky answered she was the tiny team leader that chewed me out for the pool incident. All around exactly what you would expect from a military person in her rank, hardass and a sailor's mouth. "But until we get word back we are on extended shifts." She grumbled the last part and went to the PC that I set up with a music collection for them, and started playing some rock.

Hina cringed a little, preferring things with more Bass in them.

We continued working for a while, three hours to be exact and no new or different guards showed up, and it was grinding on the nerves of the Octolings, even Hina was starting to get nervous.

"What the heck is taking them so damn long." Inky started to lose her patience.

"Don't you have some way to call them?" I asked them.

"We shouldn't need to. We have a team outside for Operation management." Inky answered. "I am waiting for 30 minutes. If they don't come in here begging I am going out there to kick their ink sacks!"

That was surprisingly lax for military, but that could be another cultural difference.

We waited for the 30 minutes, the music we listened to got progressively more aggressive as well, going from simple Rock to Metal.

"All right, that's it. I am going to kick their ink sacks so far up that they will take the over the space where their brain's use to be!" After I finished translating that in my head I broke out laughing.

"And what do you think is so funny!" she shouted at me.

"I will need to show you a movie called Full-metal-jacket one day, you will probably love it." I explained. With that, we got up and made for the city.

The walk was an uneasy one, communication wasn't working and we had no idea where the team was. Horror movie start like out of a textbook.

As we entered the city I started to hear music playing.

It was a rather fast but simple melody that was heard everywhere. Reminded me a bit of club music.

"Is there some kind of festival going on or some holiday?" I asked into the group.

"Not that I know of." Hina said. "Why do you ask?"

"The music." I explained.

"What music?" she asked carefully.

"Don't you hear it?" I asked back with a raised eyebrow. "It's everywhere." I pointed around us at the speakers.

"I..." her face strained and the Guards around us also stopped and started to listen as well.

One of them then started to hum along with the melody and within a minute the others managed to hear it as well.

"Weird…" One of them commented. I started recording, something was definitely of here.

As we walked we noticed that despite the number of people most of them were so quiet and looked drowsy. I felt like I was in some Silent Hill knockoff.

"Hehehe" Came from behind us, we turned around and looked at the source. I recognized her insignia, she only joined Hinas personal guard a while ago. I suspected her position was the equivalent of a private, she also looked a bit young as far as my Octoling age judgment was concerned.

"Spifi? The splat is wrong with you?!" Inky ordered. Surprisingly she didn't snap at attention instantly instead she started to sway back and forth while mumbling incomprehensibly.

"The hell do you mean with that?" Inky stepped up to her and started shaking her. I suspected that she was speaking some dialect or mixing words because I didn't understand the answer at all.

"Snap out of it!" With that, the rookie got slapped across the face.

She had a comedic look on her face but she seemed to be lucid for a moment."Whaa, I… feel so… strange." With that she again got a silly smile on her face and started swaying mesmerizingly on the spot.

"Ok, this is setting off, like, all of my bad horror movie alarms, if someone starts to chant praises to Cthulhu I am out of here." I commented as I picked up the Rookie and swung her over my shoulder.

We continued towards the palace with increased pace throughout the early streets.

As we approach the building things start to look more normal actually. The guards are posted where I expected them to be and little looked out of place.

I was starting to think that this strange madness was just some kind of quirk of their society and the squad played a prank on me.

Then we saw her, the Queen, standing there battle ready and in full military attire. "Visitors!" she shouted. "What business do you have with the great kind Octavio!"

"Ok, this is as far as I will go." I said to Hina. "What the hell is going on here, I know for a fact that the Queen hates Octavio."As I turned to Hina she and the rest of the squad only answered in shocked expressions. "I mean that was a thing right?" I asked trying to reaffirm my knowledge.

"Allll, Hailllll, Kiiiing, Octaviooo..." The rookie sang out from where she was on my back.

"Ok, this is getting creepy on so many levels, I am out of here!" I announced when I started to walk back.

"I…" For the first time I heard hesitation in Inki's voice. "I am behind you. Let move!" The last part was directed to the whole squad.

"You behave strange visitors. Do you not wish to stay and talk to the King?" This sickly sweet voice sounded utterly wrong on the Queen and only made me move my legs faster which forced the others to run. "You are strange, in fact, you are to strange..." I did not like that at all. "Get them!" by now I was at full sprint, the squad was ink diving and the ink started to fly around us, I picked the rookie from my back and hugged her to my chest to shield her.

As we charged out of the plaza and to the nearest exit the assault nearly doubled.

Just as we were about to leave I saw them putting the finishing touches on a makeshift barrier. Looking it over it didn't look very stable and while the Octarians had a little trouble putting the pieces in place I suspected I would have little trouble with it.

I had no think further on my theory and decided to try a head on approach, I picked up speed and shoulder checked the blockade.

It gave in, I still felt a sting on my shoulder but damn that was satisfying. I felt like the Hulk, or Juggernaut.

Around me the others just slipped through the gaps while shooting at a few other Octolings here and there. The fact that they didn't die when they exploded didn't make me feel better as metal as it sounded.

I was a bit jealous at how nimble they were, not having to stubble about in the rest of the barricade made them pull ahead a bit but we still reached the door more or less together.

I didn't have to stop as they opened the door ahead of me and we continued our mad dash until we weren't secure in the room of the base.

"What the SPLAT is going on here!" Hina shouted beside me.


	7. Chapter 7

"So… that happened." David ever so helpfully said as all of them were sitting at the camp having explained the situation to everyone. "I will go and see if I can find my shotgun!" He stopped mid step. "And C4, just in case." He had been acting strange since we came back Hina noted. Very twitchy.

"Wait!" Inky protested, "I don't know what those are but we can't just attack blindly!"

He turned back to her and said. "You misunderstand something here Inky, I am not fighting, I am bunkering down and creating a kill zone around the facility." He explained slowly like talking to a child.

"That isn't any better!" she argued back.

"Well I am not sure what you are doing but that down there reminded me to much of a old horror movie!" he shouted back.

"You think I don't know that!" she actually stood on her toes to reach his face, it wasn't enough. "We need to focus and not panic right now."

"All hail King General DJ Octavio!" Spifi announced from her still prone position.

All of them just looked at her with various stages of shock.

"I vote the first course of action should be to tie her up."

"Agreed."

David took a deep breath and rubbed his face tiredly. "Ok, first. I am fairly sure that Queen Retvi hated the old king. So what is going on."

"I really have no idea." Inky said mimicking him. "Hina you are the smart splat here, any clue what happened?"

"I really don't know..." Hina admitted.

"Well I have no clue what is up with your species, but I haven't heard a word that means controlling someone's actions in our lessons yet." David said rubbing his eyes.

"'Mind Control', what you are looking for is 'Mind Control'." Hina said. "You can't seriously suggesting that is what is going on."

"Let's see, strange music, people acting not like they are supposed to and we have people hailing a guy who supposedly is slowly ruining your people." He recounted. "Sorry but the evidence goes against you."

"But… but… you are trying to tell me that we are in some dumb movie!" Hina protested.

"Hate to break it to you but David is kind of right." Inky said. "And I don't like that at all. First question that comes to my mind is; why aren't we affected." A muffed scream was heard from the tank. "Besides the new girl, that is."

"I think you just answered your own question." He answered thoughtfully. "New girl, she hasn't been with us for very long. Whatever is making this happen didn't happen to those that haven't been down in the city. Although… that music has never played when I was down there." He mused. "You are all military, surely there some old experiments based on controlling the enemy."

"If there is I never got the clearance for it." She admitted.

David sighed. "Ok, priorities. First we need to find out what is going on. Let's,... Let's go back inside for now." They all went inside and placed the tank where we held Spifi was placed on the couch, she was wobbling back and forth inside of it.

They turned on the music and tried to relax with various degrees of success.

"Ok." Hina started. "Let's think about this rationally, what is the difference between here and the city?"

"The Air?" one of the soldiers suggested.

"What, you mean that you are constantly exposed to some kind of gas?" David threw in. "Highly unlikely, remember that I constantly check the air when I enter a new place."

"Maybe food then?"

"We still get our rations from the same place that all other Octarians." Inky pointed out.

"How about music?" David asked with narrowed eyes.

"Music? Now that is just silly." Inky said with a snort. David only responded by pointing at the tank holding Spifi. Inside of it Spifi was slowly going mad by the looks of it, she was swimming around with extreme speed, bumping against the glass with all her might.

David got up and turned of the music player, AC/DC - Back In Black was the current track. The moment it stopped Spifi calmed down. Experimentally he turned it back on and again a violent reaction was what followed.

"What the in the tentacle eating, water drenched name of Cthulhu is that." For some reason David did his best impression of a fish after hearing that.

"Ok, this is a bad idea but David." Hina said confidently. "Turn up the music to max and put Spifi next to the speakers."

He was speaking something under his breath that Hina couldn't quite make out but he followed the instructions nonetheless.

Spifi reacted even more violent the before making the tank actually tumble a bit before David started to hold it in place. The reactions got more and more violent.

Then they stopped and Spifi was calm, the music actually made her form ripple as it passed throught her. Wordlessly David turned of the music, opened the tank and emptied her out on the ground where she remained a blob.

"Spifi?" Hina asked her carefully. Slowly the rookie changed back into her Octoling form.

"What happened?" she asked back.

"We entered Octopolis, there was crappy music everywhere, you started worshiping your old king, we made a get away, put you next to a music box and now you look like you are back with us." David said kneeling next to her. "Did I miss anything?" He asked looking around the room.

"I know that what I asked is why in the watery inksacks this happened!" She shouted without getting up.

"Because someone decided that us humans weren't fucked up enough and decided to make an octopus race manipulated by music." Only Hina understood him as he used his species language.

"Ok, we now know what is going on. We need to stop the King." Inky said with finality. "We need a army."

"Out of interest, how do you intend to get said army." David asked. "Last I checked you were kind of on your own as a species. I highly doubt the Salmonids will help you with the way your diplomacy works, also how would you contact them in the first place?"

They all shared a look and then looked back at David.

"I don't like the looks you guys are giving me."

* * *

"I, fucking knew, those looks mean bad things." I was complaining for a while now but ultimately I did agree to this.

This being me, fully geared with multiple Ink-tanks on my person. The battle plan was to get the strongest the Octarians had, that being the Octolings, and getting them back to the base inside the tanks. Then expose them to 24 hours of Hardbass. While shorter exposure dealt with the effects pretty decently we decided to blast them with music until their molecules started shaking, just to be sure.

And because there was no way to storm the palace with our meager eight octolings(heh). It was decided that we would ambush other squads, me being the frontline to make sure that the others didn't go splat.

A decent plan from a strategic perspective.

My issues with it was that it was me who was in that frontline position.

I was supposed to catch them, stuff them into the tanks, and then carry them to the base, with a squad of 4 as backup.

For some reason the King decided to deploy most of the squad around a place called Octo Valley. Apparently it was the main choke point between the Inklings and Octolings. Queen Retvi had only a few squads deployed as scouts but Octavio just went all out.

Then the broadcast came.

Apparently, somehow, King Octavio, in the span of a single week after returning, stole the single most important powersource from the Inklings.

This nearly ripped our little rebellion apart as part of them wanted to go back, consequences be damned. At the end they stayed because of the argument that the last time he managed to do that it got taken back in the same span of time by a Inkling specialist unit. Squidbeak-platoon or something. The translation wasn't to clean on the name.

With that out of the way we made way to Octovaley and ambushed the other Octoling squads. It was relatively easy. We approach under the guise of whatever reason we could pull out of our ass with me representing a new Octarian war robot that is being field tested. As soon as we got close. We stun and pack them in.

It worked pretty decently for the first couple of times.

But no luck lasted forever and we were caught on camera the last time which led me to the current situation.

'I wonder, where did things go so horribly… wrong? strange? Not even sure what to call this.'

'This' being the fact that I was holding two Octolings who tried to murder me down with both hands. The didn't pose any threat to me, being human and all that, but by the end of this, I would have several ink-contaminated clothes and pieces of gear.

"How long does it take to bottle some Octolings over there?!" I asked the squad with annoyance.

"Have some patience, it's not like they can harm you." Inky reprimed me.

I could only sigh at the situation.

Fighting Octolings was… strange. On one hand I felt like I was attacking a bunch of children. But then the Children started pulling out military tactics and started shooting me. Sure it didn't hurt to much, besides the sniper equivalent, that one stung like hell, but it was the principal of things, damn it!

Finally they finished up on the other two and put the ones he had been holding into tanks as well.

They carried them back to the base and started un-brainwashing them.

Explaining to them what was going on was not something I wanted to be part of with how much shouting was involved. Although with the Octolings shouting was more like angry squeaking noises.

Regardless we actually managed to triple our number. Things where going pretty well.

* * *

Absolutely nothing was well right now.

"Stay calm Agent 4, I know this is strange but let's not ignore this opportunity." Marie said over the coms.

"Stay calm?" Agent 4 said sarcastically. "This smells of trap so badly that I need a shower!"

"My sense of smell is kind of limited after spending so much time with Agent 3 but I get what you mean." In truth Marie was very nervous. So far everything was just as the last time.

But then they started to encounter arenas. Maria was expecting Octolings same as last time. Instead they were empty, not a single Octoling as far as they could see. It grated on their nerves, and made them waste nearly a full hour looking for traps and hesitating. When nothing happened in the end it didn't calm them at all. Something was wrong.

"Ok, that is the last one." Agent 4 ripped her out of her thoughts.

"Good, come back here for now." He had no complains.

A few minutes later they released the small Zapfish.

"Ok, this is seriously driving me up the walls." Agent 4 complained. "Where are the Octolings."

"I have no idea." She admitted. "We are already at Slimeskin Garrison, there is only one more zone to go until we reach Octavio."

"Maybe he is keeping them all back to protect the Great Zapfish?" Agent 4 guessed. "I mean, it would be the smart thing to do."

"Octavio is many things but smart decision making was never something he was good at." Marie argued. "He is good at direct confrontations and his DJ tech, that in combination with how straight up impossible Octarian tech can be at times is his greatest strength. Besides he didn't do it last time, why start now?"

"Maybe he learned? I am a bit disturbed with how much you seem to be underestimating the leader of a whole race." He accused her.

Marie sighed at that."I am not cut out for this… Grandpa probably would know what to do in this situation." She admitted. "I wish he was here. Callie as well, she would just whip out her roller and charge."

"Doesn't sound like a decent plan either." Agent 4 whispered.

"You said something?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Agent 4 said hurriedly. "Still, I really hope we are just overthinking this." He added. "We DID get so far."

"Yes, but I can not stress this enough. Octolings are NOT the same as fighting Octarians or other Inklings." Maria explained. "Unlike us Inklings they don't just form when a Octarian is old enough. Octarians multiply through cutting off their tentacles, because they have brains in them they are self sustained and grow to a full Octarian over a long amount of time."

"So they reproduce through mitosis?" Agent 4 asked clearly uncomfortable with the idea. "Ok, I guess? What is the big deal for the Octolings then."

"Octolings are actually pretty rare in their society. A Octarian needs to have most of their tentacles to become one. But more than that they need to go through very stressful situation to become full Octolings, that makes them all inherently very aggressive, there is not a single Octolings that doesn't have basic military training, and that is only the bare minimum." Maria explained. "When you see one you are guaranteed that they will try to destroy with all that they have." She shuddered as she remembered the first the she had the displeasure to meeting one up close, she never wanted to repeated that experience, that was the reason why she specializes in the use of Chargers.

Only Callie knew that. And ironically she took up the roller promising that she would make sure that no enemy would come close to her ever again.

A tear rolled down her face and Agent 4 offered her a handkerchief.

"We will find her." He told her confidently.

"T-Thanks."


End file.
